Pakistan-Australia series to be sponsored by MCC

LONDON: Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) announced on Monday that it would sponsor the Test and one-day series between Pakistan and Australia in England in July.

This will be the first time MCC, the owner of Lord's Cricket ground where the first of two Tests between Pakistan and Australia is scheduled to start on July 13, will be sponsoring an international series.

The series comes at a time when Pakistan, which will also be playing a Test and ODI series against England this season, has become a no-go area for international cricket following a terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore last year.

“MCC is committed to the health of Test cricket, and by sponsoring the series and hosting the first Test, the club is supporting Pakistani cricket at a time when the country's Test calendar has been decimated,” the MCC's Australian secretary, Keith Bradshaw, said here on Monday.

“We often speak about Tests being the pinnacle of the game — now we are acting to back up those words,” the former Tasmania batsman added.

Bradshaw refused to divulge how much money MCC was putting into the series, which also features a Test at the Headingley ground in Leeds, citing “commercial confidentiality” but insisted it was a “not-for-profit exercise” as far as his club was concerned.