Pakistan and Australia will play a two-Test series this October, most likely in the UAE. The series has been on the Future Tours Programme (FTP) for some time, though details of how many matches it would entail have not been made clear.
A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official confirmed that the series would be of two Tests and several limited-overs games. The two sides played three ODIs and three Twenty20s in September 2012 and this Test series was originally inked in as the second half of that series.
The PCB have not confirmed the UAE as a venue, but it is the likeliest option. The board has made noises about finding other venues, citing high costs in the UAE.
They are assessing the viability of Qatar as an alternative, where their women’s team are playing in a triangular series, but the stadium infrastructure in Doha is far less established than in the UAE.
The reason the PCB is keen on just two Tests is clear. Revenues from limited-overs matches in the UAE far exceed those from a Test and, given the financial hit the PCB has taken since Pakistan was banished as an international venue, it makes economic sense.
“Our expectation will be that it will be in the UAE and my expectation is that it won’t be three Test matches, it will probably be two Test matches and a combination of one-dayers,” James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, told ABC Radio.
“It’s the hosts’ call on that and we’ll work as closely as we can with them. There’s a reciprocal arrangement. We wouldn’t like to be playing a series of less than three, but that’s their choice how they balance that and, at the end of the day, Pakistan are not able to host international cricket in Pakistan. Their commercial viability is really affected by that, so we respect their position and the decisions they need to make there.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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Roger Federer's 2018 record
Australian Open Champion
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Indian Wells Runner-up
Miami Second round
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Wimbledon Quarter-finals
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
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