| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
London: The International Cricket Council is contemplating shifting its base back to historic Lord's from recession-hit Dubai but dismissed suggestions that the economic downturn in Gulf city was the reason behind it.
The ICC controlled the game from Lord's for 96 years ever since it inception in 1909, before moving to Dubai in 2005.
ICC president David Morgan is heading a six-member panel looking at the feasibility of moving back to the MCC ground after the issue was raised as a non-agenda item at the board's last council meeting.
"There was a groundswell of opinion to come back to Lord's if at all possible," Morgan was quoted as saying by a British daily.
"The proposal to relocate to Lord's has nothing to do with recession in Dubai. The board decided that it would like to relocate if feasible before the news of the sudden downturn in Dubai. "Attitudes to working in Dubai and the environment in the UK," he said.
Morgan will report back to the board in February. The ICC left Lord's in 2005 when the British government refused to give international sports governing bodies exemption from corporation tax.
Dubai was chosen over bids from Dublin, Singapore and Switzerland and, having spent the first three years in rented offices, the ICC moved into its own 38,000 sq ft building in Dubai Sports City this year.
Morgan described Dubai as "a really good location in the sense that it is fairly central for all full member nations except the West Indies, but the attractions of being at Lord's don't need painting. London is one of the great commercial centres and it came as a pleasant surprise when the board asked me to look at it."
