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Dublin, July 2 : International Cricket Council
(ICC) president Alan Isaac has welcomed Australia's decision to play its
first-ever game against Afghanistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
next month.
"This fixture supports ICC's initiative to provide
more opportunities for our top ranking Associate/Affiliate Member (AM)
teams to play against better opposition. It aligns perfectly with the
ICC Strategic Plan to build a bigger, better global game by developing
more competitive teams at the highest level," said Issac, who was here
to watch Afghanistan play Ireland.
Australia will play the
emerging Afghanistan cricket team in the Middle East next month in the
latest step that recognises Afghanistan's increasing importance in world
cricket.
The game has been organised as a warm-up for the
Australia-Pakistan series, which immediately precedes the ICC World
Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka, in which Australia, Pakistan and
Afghanistan are all competing in September-October.
Issac said
the cricket world has already seen Pakistan play Afghanistan in Sharjah
this year in a high quality match and commended Australia for creating
this opportunity.
"It has always been willing to contribute to
development by playing against AM (affiliate members) nations as it
recently showed when it played against Ireland."
"Furthermore, a
Combined AM XI played a first-class fixture against England in Dubai,
and Bangladesh will soon play against Scotland, Ireland and Netherlands
during the Northern Hemisphere summer, while England will continue the
rotation of playing Scotland and Ireland in alternate years. I am
optimistic that the implementation of the Future AM Tour Schedule (FATS)
will lead to even more competitive fixtures between the Full Members
and our AM nations," he said.
© IANS
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