All smoke without fire

DUBAI // The Sharjah cricket officials plan to make their famous old ground a hub for Twenty20 cricket, but admit the recent reports linking them with the new Champions League were wide of the mark. It was reported in the UK press at the end of July that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were planning to inaugurate a new cash-rich Twenty20 league in the Middle East, to rival one set up by the Indian board.

One London newspaper stated the ECB were close to striking a deal to secure Abu Dhabi backing for the event and were "ready to finance the new league to the tune of £750 million over 10 years". Those claims were dismissed as inaccurate by the Abu Dhabi cricket chief Dilawar Mani. The respected cricket website Cricinfo then reported that Sharjah was the ECB's new venue of choice - a story which surprised the stadium's officials.

The Sharjah Cricket Council, and Emirates Cricket Board administrator Mazhar Khan was in Malaysia, with the UAE's ACC Trophy tour party, when the news broke of Sharjah's surprising return to prominence. "It was news to me," said Mazhar. "First they said it was going to be held in Abu Dhabi, and that the royal family were involved. I don't know. "Cricket is so tied up these days, in terms of getting hold of international teams. It is so difficult.

"If there is any opportunity of these teams coming, then definitely - we would look forward to it. But when are these teams available? That is the issue." Between 1984 and 2003, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium hosted 198 one-day internationals - still a record for any ground. However, hectic schedules and a brief Indian government-imposed ban on their national team playing "off-shore" matches stemmed the flow of matches in the emirate.

In Aug 2006, Sharjah officials revealed plans to host a Twenty20 club championship, a precursor and less-vaunted version of the Champions League. "We want to have international cricket again at our ground," Zahid Noorani, a Sharjah stadium official, commented at the time. "We will invite the champion Twenty20 teams from Test-playing nations in January before the World Cup [in 2009 in the West Indies]."

The event never took place, and has since been superseded by a new, India-backed version, the first edition of which is now planned to take place in Mohali, Delhi and Jaipur in December. Mazhar is keen to tap in to the Twenty20 boom, and believes the atmospheric Sharjah ground will be perfectly suited to the abbreviated form. However, the packed international calendar remains the main impediment to their plans. He added: "Twenty20 is moving in different directions. Now they are talking about club cricket, a Champions League for the domestic champions, but I really don't know. For the Champions League, you have to get hold of eight teams, who consist of international players.

"With the international calendar so tied up, I think a lot of countries are struggling to get hold of a slot - even for those events that they had announced. "We have to wait and see how things move forward from here, rather than just raising our hands and saying 'Yes, we can do it'." pradley@thenational.ae