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Pakistan to stage Champions Trophy in 2008

Pakistan has been awarded the right to host the next Champions Trophy in 2008 by the ICC

Cricinfo staff
01-May-2006


Shaharyar Khan: 'It will be one of the biggest global sporting events ever held in Pakistan' © Getty Images
Pakistan has been awarded the right to host the next Champions Trophy in 2008 by the ICC. West Indies, due to host the World Cup in 2007, will stage the Champions Trophy in 2010.
By then the tournament promises to be more streamlined than the present version, with only the top eight teams taking part. The Pakistan edition is likely to be scheduled towards the end of September 2008 while the West Indies will do so in April and May 2010.
Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), said that Pakistan was delighted to have been awarded the event. "The ICC Champions Trophy 2008 will be one of the biggest global sporting events ever held in Pakistan. The decision of the ICC board to award this event to Pakistan is a tremendous show of support in the PCB, in Pakistan cricket and in our nation. We are very honoured to have been given the responsibility of hosting this important event and look forward to welcoming the top cricket nations to our country."
Ehsan Mani, president ICC, praised the efforts of Pakistan to be ready to host such an event. "The PCB has worked tremendously hard to get to a position where it is ready to host an event of this importance. It will be the first nation to host a streamlined Champions Trophy involving only the top eight sides in ODI rankings.
"The Champions Trophy is an established part of the international cricket calendar and we were inundated with members that wanted to host this prestigious event. This means that we have been able to find very sensible time slots for this and other events in the years ahead. By reducing the number of teams taking part and moving the scheduling of the event the Champions Trophy will be a very strong component of the exciting package of events through to 2015."
Ken Gordon, chairman of the West Indies board (WICB), thanked the ICC for providing the West Indies with the opportunity to build on next year's World Cup. "I'd like to thank the ICC for understanding that it is important that we have further opportunities to make use of the excellent facilities that we are building for the World Cup 2007. The hosting of the Champions Trophy provides the perfect opportunity for us to build upon the momentum of next year's World Cup for the long term benefit of cricket in the region."
A decision on whether the annual ICC events from 2012 to 2014 will be Champions Trophies or Twenty20 World Championships will be made after the success of the events through to 2009 has been evaluated. The hosting right, though, have been allocated for the events in 2012 and 2014. Sri Lanka has earned the right to host the 2012 event while Bangladesh will host the major ICC event in 2014.
"Sri Lanka has an excellent tradition of hosting ICC events and in recent times they have successfully staged two ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cups and one ICC Champions Trophy. We have every confidence that they will stage another memorable event in 2012 be it Twenty20 or ODI cricket," said Mani. He added that, "Bangladesh hosted perhaps the most remarkably successful ICC event during my time as president (the Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2004). The fact that they have now been asked to host a major ICC event in 2014 as well as act as a joint host of the World Cup 2011 is testament to the progress that has been made in Bangladesh cricket over recent times."