ICC thanks Indian government for tax exemption

Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, has welcomed the Indian government's decision to grant tax exemption for major sporting events in the country, saying that it removes any hurdles that might have come between India hosting ICC events in future. The Champions Trophy is scheduled to be held in India in 2006, and Indian officials are also contemplating a bid for the 2011 World Cup, possibly in conjunction with the three other Test-playing nations in the region.

"The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and the ICC worked very closely to obtain the tax exemption," said Mani, in an interview to Indo-Asian News Service. "It would have been unfortunate, to say the least, if India had not been able to host the Champions Trophy. I am very grateful to the Prime Minister of India for personally intervening in this matter; this demonstrates the importance of cricket to the people of India."

With Australia and New Zealand considering a joint bid for the 2011 World Cup, Mani added that an Asian bid - India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had hosted the event together in 1996 - would have a strong chance of success. Saying that the decision would only be made over the next year and a half, Mani insisted that he agreed in principle with the Asian Cricket Council's request to allot every third World Cup to the region.

"The request - not a demand - of the ACC is reasonable," he said. "After all, four of the (ICC) 10 full member countries are from Asia. On the principle of rotation, due weightage has to be given to this; I do not think that this will be a major issue."

With venues like Sharjah, Dubai and Singapore now struggling to attract matches, Mani suggested that they could also be part an ICC event held elsewhere in Asia. "The World Cup requires at least eight venues to host the matches," he said. "There is no reason for these venues not to work closely with the subcontinent to host ICC events."