da stake casino： Pakistan and Sri Lanka have agreed to play in Sharjah’s one-day cricket tournament for the next three years, say organisers
Bloomberg13-Jul-2001Pakistan and Sri Lanka have agreed to play in Sharjah’s one-day cricket tournament for the next three years, say organisers.The twice-yearly Coca-Cola Cup suffered a setback in Aprilwhen the Indian government banned its national team from competingthere for three years.Media reports said the Sharjah tournament’s vulnerability topossible match-fixing may have caused the Indians to withdraw. Theevent attracts crowds mainly from Sharjah’s ex-patriot Indian andPakistani population.”Although I’m hopeful India will play here again, matchesinvolving Pakistan and Sri Lanka will create great interest,”said Zahid Noorani, chief executive of the Cricketers Benefit FundSeries, which runs the tournaments.The two countries contested a 30,000 sell-out final in April,when Sri Lanka won after Pakistan triumphed in all four of theirgroup matches. New Zealand had replaced India as the third team.The next event, involving Zimbabwe as the third nation, willrun from 26 October to 4 November, Noorani said. Prize money has beenincreased to US$250,000 from US$100,000, with the winner receivingUS$120,000 and the runner-up US$80,000, he said.The Emirates Cricket Board is holding an inquiry, headed byformer West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, into allegations of matchfixing at the Sharjah tournament and elsewhere in the U.A.E.