MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has awarded PDM International the contract for ground rights for the Indo-Pak Friendship Series to be held in Abu Dhabi. PDM bid $ 3.61 million for the rights, outbidding Abu Dhabi Cricket Club with a slim margin.

The one-day series will be held on 18 and 19 April. The third participant in the bidding, Nimbus, was disqualified for not fulfilling the Tender conditions.

BCCI Marketing Sub Committee VP & chairman Lalit Modi said, ''it is good to see corporates interested in associating with this series and more importantly the cause for which it is being played. Out of the three companies that submitted the ground rights tender, the BCCI Marketing Sub Committee awarded the rights to PDM International that had the requisite qualifications and experience as per the conditions listed in the Invitation to Tender. We now look forward to a positive and lasting association with them".

These matches are being played for the earthquake relief victims that affected millions of people in the subcontinent. 75 per cent of the proceeds will go to Pakistan, while 25 per cent of the proceeds will go to India. The India and Pakistan players have also agreed to waive their match fees towards this cause.

Announcing the development, PDM International MD & CEO Sanjay Lal said, "We launched PDM India with a focused objective and today we have made our first step towards achieving this objective. We completely support this cause and deeply relate to it. We are happy to contribute in our own way by attaining the rights to this series. We will be announcing the title sponsor along with the other on-ground partners shortly."

Billed as the 'Friendship Series', this will be the first time in nearly eight years that India and Pakistan will play in a bilateral series on a neutral venue. BCCI & PCB have decided to play 15-25 games over the next 5 years at a neutral venue and these are the first 2 ties to be played, states an official release.

There are a large number of expatriates in the UAE and they will be treated to an Indo-Pak cricket affair after nearly 6 years. These matches will be played at the Zayed stadium, which boasts of state-of-the-art facilities and a capacity of 18,000 spectators.

PDM has been in the sports and entertainment arena since 1995 and have already made their mark in the subcontinent. They have worked very closely with organizations like Levers, Sahara P&G, Airtel and Hero Honda. In the past year, PDM entered the International arena and have worked in countries like the US, UK and UAE. This development signals the entry of PDM into the big league, the release adds.