Pakistan will host three top teams in the first quarter of 2009 with India touring in January-February to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Tuesday.The Chairman of the board said after a governing body meeting in Islamabad that all the tours had been confirmed by the concerned cricket boards.He said after India's tour, Pakistan will host Sri Lanka for a one-day series in early April and then Australia for five one-day internationals from April 23 before the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June."Australia are coming and will allow us to improve our financial position which has been termed as healthy and strong by the governing body members today," Dr Nasim Ashraf said.The board has come under severe scrutiny from the Senate standing committee on sports and culture for its extravagant spending.But Ashraf disagreed and said the board was an independent sports body and did not take any grants from the government.Our financial position was discussed threadbare by the board members who are satisfied with the overall position," Ashraf said."Pakistan had an income of around USD 7.5 million held up due to the postponement of Australia's tour last month because of security reasons. But that money is not lost and we will make it when Australia come." Ashraf said with tours by India, Sri Lanka and Australia penciled in early next year in four months time, the board expected to improve its financial position from sale of media rights this year.He said Ehsan Mani, the former President of the International Cricket Council, has been appointed as advisor on the sale of media rights including television, radio, broadband internet, mobile clips etc while the board would appoint an independent forensic audit company to ensure the entire bidding process is transparent and above board.Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi said four top bidders would be invited to give a presentation to the governing body while the process of awarding MDI rights would begin from July to be completed in September."We have decided to award the media rights for next five years and we expect to earn double and more than the USD 43 million we got from our last agreement for television rights."Ashraf also announced that in order to boost its domestic cricket structure and create interest in it, the governing body had decided that every regional team can play two guest players and they can also be from overseas."Our main priority is to raise the standards of domestic cricket and we feel overseas players can also increase interest in these tournaments," he added.He stated the governing body had also approved an increase in the match fees and monthly retainers of players who represent the regional teams in domestic cricket.
