Sharjah cricket organisers focus on Indo-Pak hockey
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| Planet Field Hockey |
January 17, 2001
The Times of India
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NEW DELHI: Organisers of cricket matches in the Gulf Emirate of Sharjah are now striving to hold money-spinning hockey series between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
The Sharjah-based Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS), which holds limited-overs tournaments twice a year, plans to organise a tri-nation hockey series in March-April next year.
CBFS chairman Abdurrehman Bukhatir said efforts were underway to identify a suitable location to hold the tri-series -- featuring India, Pakistan and Bangladesh -- in collaboration with hockey officials of the United Arab Emirates.
"We are trying to support a game which is the second most popular sport in the sub-continent after cricket," Bukhatir said.
"Right now we are searching for a location to stage the event. We hope to have a clear picture in the next four to six weeks."
Sharjah has hosted more one-day cricket internationals (146) than any other venue in the world since CBFS began operations in 1981 to cater to the cricket-mad expatriate Asian population in the Gulf.
The proposed hockey series, however, depends on permission from the Indian government, who last month cancelled a cricket tour of Pakistan citing security concerns.
Indian Hockey Federation chief Kunwar Gill said permission will be sought from relevant authorities once a detailed programme is received from the organisers.
"Everything depends on the approval from the government," Gill said.
The government's stance will also dictate the fate of the cricket tri-series in Sharjah next April between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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