KARACHI, 25 July 2003 — The Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) have shelved plans to host an international cricket tournament in Sharjah this December due to non-availability of teams including Pakistan.

A senior CBFS official said that while he could not say for certain the tournament had been called off, but their appeared very little chance of it being held in December. “I doubt whether we will be able to have it in December since no team is available due to an hectic international calendar this year,” chief executive Zahid Noorani said. The CBFS traditionally hosts two tournaments a year and last April it organized a quadrangular event featuring Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Sri Lanka despite the war in Iraq. Pakistan will be touring New Zealand from early December. England is playing in Sri Lanka until Dec. 22. Australia are busy with their home season involving Zimbabwe and India while the South Africans are hosting the West Indies at home, Noorani said.

That means that no major team is available in December to play at Sharjah, he said. However he confirmed that in April 2004 the CBFS would host a tournament and had already got confirmations from Pakistan and South Africa.

That tournament is definitely on and we will confirm a third team soon, he added. The CBFS has regularly held international tournaments since 1983/84 and has a contract with Pakistan and Sri Lanka to appear in at least two tournaments a year at Sharjah and Tangiers, Morocco. The CBFS were also forced to call off another tournament in Tangiers, Morocco this August, also because of non-availability of teams.

However the CBFS official dismissed fears that international cricket might come to a halt in Sharjah or Tangiers. That will not happen because the CBFS is very keen to host regular tournaments. We have had problems because of the non-availability of teams we want due to the hectic international schedule of the teams and at times we have avoided inviting teams we didn’t want, he added.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand cricket officials have yet to give final approval to back-to-back matches on their planned tour of Pakistan in November. It has been confirmed that the Pakistan board had sent a tentative itinerary to their New Zealand counterparts for the five One-Day matches scheduled in the last quarter of November but has yet to get a final approval for the same.

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Pakistan’s dashing all-rounder Shahid Afridi has vowed to silence his critics by making a comeback to the senior team on the dint of sheer performances and hard work.

“I really can’t give a timeframe for when I will be back in the team. That is not in my hands but yes what I can do is to continue to work hard, score runs, take wickets, field well and adopt a positive attitude to make a comeback,” Afridi said in an interview from London.