Schedule of Pakistan vs England T20 Series 2010

Pakistan is going to play two Twenty20 matches against England in Dubai international stadium on February 19 and 20, 2010. Thus, it has become Pakistan and England Twenty20 series 2010 and it will perhaps attract a lot of viewers on Television than the attraction on crowd in stadium. The two matches will be live broadcast in TEN SPORTS TV channel in South Asia and from now TEN SPORTS is giving advertisement of the matches. These matches are not that much important for any of the two teams because it is only two matches. However, they have some significance considering the fact that Twenty20 World cup 2010 will take place in April and May in West Indies.

You may wonder that why the matches are taking place in Dubai of UAE. If you are a cricket fan and collect information about world cricket then you should have known that for many months no foreign team has been touring to Pakistan because of security concern. So, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are becoming the second home for Pakistani cricket. In UAE, thousands of people of Pakistani origin work as emigrant workers and they are always happy to be in the stadium on a Friday. Here is the schedule below:

Date	Teams	Time	Venue
19 February 2010 (Friday)	Pakistan vs England- 1st Twenty20 match	GMT 14:00 Local Time 18:00 Indian Time 19:30	Dubai International Cricket Stadium
20th February 2010 (Saturday)	Pakistan vs England- 2nd Twenty20 match	GMT 14:00 Local Time 18:00 Indian Time 19:30	Dubai International Cricket Stadium

The organizers are hopping that many fans will come up for the two matches. The organizers have also tried to decrease the ticket price so that more people come. The price of the ticket is just AED 75 and this price is for the 19 February match. 19 February is going to be Friday and it is the holiday in UEA. So, you can expect a good turn out for the match. For the next match on Saturday, the ticket price has been just AED 50. Well, I think that the ticket price should have been decreased even further for Saturday’s match because in Saturday not many people will turn up for the match.

Pakistan’s recent performance is very bad. They can not play in their home stadiums for many months and this is perhaps one of the main reasons. They have less match practice than other countries. Pakistan just finished a very miserable tour of Australia in which they played three matches and lost all of them. Pakistan also played five ODI matches and lost all of them and they played one T20 match and even lost that one too. In the final Twenty20 match, Shahid Afridi was found guilty for ball tempering and he had been banned for two T20 matches. So, most probably Pakistan will have to play against England in this series against Shahid Afridi. This will surely make the Pakistani team weak. I am not sure if Afridi and Pakistani team has appealed against the ban and would be able to play. Another notable player who cannot play is Mohammad Asif.

Many people in Pakistan are very unhappy because of the way their national team lost against Australia. The Pakistan cricket team could not even secure one draw or one win in the entire tour. Now, Pakistan’s coach and captain have been called in the country to explain the bad performance. However, I don’t think the coach and the captain had anything to do with the bad performance.

The players are not in good shape and what Pakistani government and cricket board need to do is arrange more matches for the team in places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

I really think that Pakistan cricket board and Pakistani government should now focus on the England series in stead of investigating the reasons of humiliating defeat in Australian tour.

On the other hand, England recently went to South Africa for a four-match test series. The two teams also played five ODI matches and two T20 matches. The test series was draw. England won the ODI series by 2-1. The t20 series was also a draw. So, England had a very good tour of South Africa because South Africa at this moment is the number one ranked country in the world.

This series is t20 series and Pakistan is the current world champion in T20 cricket. Just a few months ago, in England Twenty20 world cup cricket took place and Pakistan was the champion. So, Pakistani supporters are now expecting that their team can defeat England easily. On the other hand, English cricket fans are hoping that England can win because Pakistan’s recent performance is very bad in world cricket. So, it is a very good opportunity for England to take advantage of the situation and win the t20 series.

I think that the series is taking place mainly for money rather than playing cricket. First of all it is only just two T20 matches and there is no ODI or Test matches. So, it is a sad matter for cricket fans of both the countries. Pakistan cricket board is under serious financial stress and they will get some decent amount of money from TEN SPORTS who will broadcast the matches live. I think that they will also get some money from the sponsors and that is perhaps why the two matches are taking place.