LAHORE - Pakistan is likely to agree to shift the three-nation one-day tournament in August and the Test rubber in October to Australia. So instead of playing the Aussies at home, Pakistan would be visiting them. It means that, as hinted in a statement by the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed the other day, the option of neutral venues has been discarded by the Pakistan Board.

In addition, it would also be safe to infer that in PCB's pragmatic consideration, hoping to host any tournament or a series at home in the prevailing environment is unrealistic.

One has to willy nilly agree with this view, though there might be some who would suggest that it would have been better to wait and see the drift of events. But one big problem here is that by leaving things for too late, we may have cricket played somewhere but there would be next to no revenue. And, having been clobbered first by the Indian border tensions, followed by the aftermath of September 11 and then the May 8 blast in Karachi, raising revenue is one serious issue with the PCB.

One source high in the PCB confided to this writer 'while nothing has been finalised as yet, the Board is looking at many options, and various feasibilities are under careful study.'

Since the PCB is so obviously resigned to the fact that playing host is well nigh impossible, the possibility of shifting the one-day tournament to Australia and swapping the Test rubber slated for 2002 with the one Down Under in 2004 could be the second best arrangement. Though Pakistan would not be playing at home, and that is definitely a disadvantage, but the choice is between quality cricket and no cricket, or at best some at a neutral venue. Secondly, the Test series is only being swapped, while the other option is going to a neutral place. So, no home series now but we get to play one later.

At this point, the Pakistan team has started emerging as a team and has also hit glorious form. It needs high-grade cricket in the build-up for the 2003 World Cup. And matching wits with the Aussies would be worth our while, indeed a big boost, in cricketing terms, for in contemporary cricket the Pakistanis are the only side capable of upsetting the Aussie apple cart.

In revenue terms too - with Channel 9 telecasting the event, and there isn't any better cricketing channel - Pakistan could get good value for their effort. So while one would have liked to see the top-ranked team in the world bruised and battered right in front of our eyes, maybe Waqar Younis and his charges would provide us the pleasure of doing the same in the Aussie backyard. That would be a first, and indeed take some doing, but it by no means falls in the realm of impossible for Younis and his talented bunch.

Although it's not an ideal situation, indeed far from it but it definitely is the best of the options.

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