Pakistan keen to host 2014 Twenty20

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is interested in hosting the 2014 World Twenty20.

Pakistan has missed out on two global ICC events in recent times due to security concerns; the 2008 Champions Trophy and the 2011 World Cup. The first was taken away last year after a number of teams expressed strong reservations about touring the country.

The fate of the 2011 World Cup, to be jointly hosted in the subcontinent, was decided this year, after the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore in March. After the attacks the ICC ruled out international cricket in Pakistan till 2011, though it has set up a task force, working with the PCB, to find ways for international cricket to return to the country.

But Pakistan are quietly confident that the recent improvement in the situation within the country, following military action in northern areas, may lead to more stability.

"We are interested in making a bid for the tournament," Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, told Cricinfo. "It is very early right now but we are interested. Hopefully the situation will have improved and stabilised in the country by then."

Butt is in Johannesburg currently, where he will be attending the ICC executive board's meeting on October 6-7. It is believed, however, that the ICC hasn't yet begun considering bids for the event and may not do so until the end of the year or early next year.