England & Wales Cricket Board To Meet Indian Board Over Champions Trophy Pull-Out

Officials from the England & Wales Cricket Board will meet with their counterparts from India next week to "discover the seriousness of threats to pull out of next year’s Champions Trophy," according to Nick Hoult of the London TELEGRAPH. The Board of Control for Cricket in India is "besieged at the moment by rows with the country’s Supreme Court over the failure to implement regulations put in place last year by a commission set up" in the wake of the Indian Premier League betting scandal. It is also "caught up in a much wider issue after skirmishes in Kashmir between the Indian army and Pakistan militants strained relations between the two countries." Pakistan and India are "due to play each other in their opening fixture of the Champions Trophy at Edgbaston on June 4." The public ballot for tickets ended last week and the match will "attract vast advertising revenue for broadcasters who will expect a global television audience of hundreds of millions" (TELEGRAPH, 10/4).