Cricket Buzz: Pakistan to continue playing home games in the UAE

Pakistan will continue playing its international 'home' games in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at reduced costs, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said after reaching an agreement with its Emirati counterpart.

Pakistan has been hosting most of its international matches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah since 2009 when a gun and grenade attack injured six Sri Lankan players in Lahore, while killing eight Pakistanis.

Uncertainty arose following reports that the Afghanistan Premier League would be played in UAE in October, coinciding with Pakistan's home series against Australia and New Zealand.

"The PCB and ECB (Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) have held fruitful discussions on matters of mutual interest," a joint statement read.

"The ECB has committed to a significant reduction of the costs to Pakistan Cricket Board of holding tournaments with immediate effect."

The agreement also states that the ECB will not host any league during Pakistan's international or domestic T20 matches in the UAE.

'Indian sub-continent constitutes 90 percent of more than one billion cricket fans'

Cricket has over one billion fans globally, with the Indian sub-continent alone constituting more than 90 percent of them, according to the largest ever market research into the sport conducted by the ICC.

As per the results of the research, the average age of fans (in the surveyed age category of 16-69) is 34 with a demographic breakdown of 61 percent male and 39 percent female.

The research was undertaken to enable the ICC and its members to understand the growth potential of cricket, help shape the development of the growth focused global strategy for the game, drive decision making and to provide a benchmark upon which to measure the outcomes of the strategy.

It also supports the ICC and its members in shaping and implementing their fan engagement strategies and clearly presents cricket as a vibrant and popular sport globally.

Close to 70 percent fans are interested in Test cricket with fans in England & Wales showing the strongest interest in this format (86 percent), South Africa lead the interest in ODI cricket (91 percent) and Pakistan in T20I cricket (98 percent). Globally, T20I is the most popular format with 92 percent interest while ODIs are close with 88 percent interest.

"It is the first global market research project ever undertaken in the sport and having more than one billion fans in the surveyed age category of 16-69 alone, with an average age of 34, is undoubtedly an exciting and strong position from which we can drive the sport forward," ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said, adding "90 percent fans" comes come from the Indian sub-continent alone.

The breakdown of cricket's three different formats in the research showed two-thirds of fans over the age of 16 who were interviewed are interested in all three international formats of the game.

The importance and popularity of ICC global events was evident with 95% of fans interested or very interested, with the ICC Cricket World Cup and the ICC World T20 the most popular.