India's cricket chiefs on Thursday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to prevent the 2006 Champions Trophy tournament from being shifted to arch-rivals Pakistan. The International Cricket Council (ICC) had said in March that the biennial limited-overs tournament, the second biggest after the World Cup, could be taken away from India and handed to Pakistan if the Indian government did not exempt the event from tax.
The government imposes income tax on all earnings, including gate receipts and sponsorships, for international sporting events held in the country.
Indian cricket board president Ranbir Singh Mahendra and former ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya met Prime Minister Singh here on Thursday in a bid to resolve the impasse. The ICC has given India a June deadline to confirm the tax waiver.
India were originally scheduled to host the Champions Trophy in 2004, but the event was shifted to England and India made provisional hosts for 2006 after the Indian government dithered on the tax waiver. The tournament, which raises funds for the ICC's development program, is contested by all the 10 Test-playing nations and two qualifiers from associate members of the ICC.
India, with millions of cricket-mad viewers, is the world's biggest market for the sport. At least four of the ICC's six global sponsors are India-specific.
The ICC's tax waiver policy was not enforced when India co-hosted two World Cups in the past, in 1987 with Pakistan and in 1996 with both Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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