Pakistan has expressed its inability to play a Twenty20 match against India
to raise funds for their former coach Bob Woolmer's cricket academy in South Africa
because of a packed international schedule.
Widow of Bob Woolmer, Gill had written to the cricket Board's of Pakistan
and Indian to arrange a Twenty20 match to raise funds for the academy coming up
in memory of her husband in Cape town.
"It is just not possible to schedule any match for the
next year or so because of our hectic international schedule. But we are willing
to help in other ways to set up the academy," Director, cricket operations,
Pakistan cricket Board Zakir Khan, said today.
He said that Woolmer remained a much admired and respected
person in Pakistan cricket and since his death the Board had been supportive
of his family in many ways.
"But it is very difficult to play a twenty20 match with
India because even when we tour India in November-December the itinerary is
already finalised and can't be revised," he said.
He said that the ICC had already kept a regulation that teams
cannot play more than seven Twenty20 matches in a year and Pakistan has already
committed to the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in September.
"We would like to help but it is a difficult situation for us to escape
from our tight schedule," he said.
Woolmer, the former England player died in Kingston, Jamaica
during the World Cup in the West Indies in March.
The PCB has named an area of its National Cricket Academy in
Lahore in his memory.
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