ISLAMABAD, July 27, (Agencies): The Pakistan Cricket Board has sought government approval to forward a high-level review to the International Cricket Council regarding last year’s terror attack on the Sri Lankan team at Lahore.

PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said Tuesday once the government gives the go ahead, the report will be sent to the ICC. Sarwar declined to give a timeline.

A panel of Lahore High Court judges compiled the report after gunmen killed six policemen and a van driver in Lahore when they attacked a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers to a test match in March last year. Several Sri Lankan cricketers were injured in the attack.

Critics have questioned why it has taken Pakistan so long to provide the international cricket community with the review.

“It was a judicial inquiry and we require permission from the government to dispatch the report to ICC,” Sarwar told the Associated Press.

Pakistanwas dropped as co-host of the 2011 World Cup after the attack, and has been barred from hosting any international cricket since.

Limited-overs series against Australiaand New Zealand were played in the United Arab Emirateslast year and Pakistan also played its “home” test series in New Zealand.

Pakistanplayed two test matches against Australiain England this month, sparking national celebrations with a three-wicket win in the second test at Leeds to square the series and heighten interest in the longest form of the game. Sarwar said the PCB is “on the same page” with the ICC in looking for a way to revive international cricket in Pakistan.

“ICC is the supreme cricket body and together we are trying our best to see international teams returning to Pakistan in the near future,” he said.

Meanwhile, former Pakistaninternational turned Englandspin-bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed is among a group of cricketers who have lent their support to the Not In My Game anti-terror campaign.

The aim is to encourage cricket fans around the world to make clear that incidents such as the one which saw the Sri Lanka team bus fired upon in Lahore in March last year, killing eight people and injuring seven Sri Lankan players and staff, have no place in sport.

That attack led to the effective suspension of international cricket in Pakistan and saw a ‘home’ series against Australia, which Pakistan ended with a three-wicket second Test win at Headingley last week, being played in England.

“Playing cricket has always been one of the most important things in my life,” Ahmed said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“This passion for the game is shared by millions of cricket fans at home and across the globe: a love of cricket unites us all, irrespective of where we’re from and whom we support,” the former leg-spinner, who also starred for Sussexin English county cricket, added. Ahmed, reflecting on the Lahore attack, said: “Atrocities like these have a terrible impact on the game we love.

In Leeds, England, Yorkshire are contemplating cuts after losing out on as much as £750,000 ($1.16 million) while staging last week’s ‘neutral’ Test between Pakistan and Australia at Headingley.

Although Yorkshire boasts England’s second largest Pakistani population outside of London, the expected support for Pakistan — who won by three wickets after bowling out Australia for just 88 on the first day — failed to materialise.

Instead, only a few thousand were in attendance for each of the four days the match lasted, in a ground holding 18,000, as Pakistanlevelled the two-Test series at 1-1.

The matches were played in England because of security concerns in Pakistan where international cricket has effectively been suspended since an armed attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in March last year.

Colin Graves, Yorkshire’s chairman said there would be cuts but promised “no alarmism” and insisted the playing staff would be unaffected.

“We don’t see swingeing cuts at all - there is no alarmism here,” he told BBC television’s Look North programme on Monday.

“We had a board meeting last Thursday while the Test match was going on, anticipating what was going to happen.

Asked why so few, Yorkshire-based Pakistanfans turned up to watch the match, Gravesreplied: “I think we expected them to be using credit cards in January, February, March.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t. But they also didn’t turn up on the day — which was a surprising thing, from our point of view.”

Some queries whether a daily ticket price of 30 pounds was too expensive and Graves said: “Yes, we could have reduced the prices — that can be levelled at us — but we think 30 pounds was fair value for a good day’s cricket.”

Graves insisted any cuts would have no bearing on Yorkshire’s squad, saying: “While I have been at Yorkshire, we’ve never cut the cricketing budget — and we never will.”

Meanwhile, Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan was left contemplating some depressing figures, telling the Yorkshire Post: “The match has cost us several hundred thousand pounds in terms of lost ticket revenue.

“I would say we’re in the region of £500,000-£750,000 short of what we were expecting, which is a big disappointment.”

Arshad Chaudhry, chairman of the Leeds-based Asian Business Development Network, was also saddened by the small crowds, which he blamed on a lack of media coverage in the build-up to the match.

But he warned counties such as Yorkshiremight be unwilling to stage ‘neutral’ games in future unless they could expect better attendances.

“Yorkshire and the ECB (Englandand Wales Cricket Board) have gone out of their way to host the Pakistan-Australia home series here in England,” Chaudhry told AFP here on Sunday.

“We need to appreciate the effort, as it involved financial risks on behalf of the organisers.”

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