Lahore, Jul 8 (PTI) Pakistan Cricket Board is confident that it can still convince Cricket West Indies (CWI) to scrap the three-match ODI series and instead play more T20Is in July-August this year.

PCB CEO Sumair Ahmed said on Tuesday that talks with the West Indies board are in the final stages and a decision is expected in the next couple of days.

“As you know, we have the T20 World Cup coming up early next year, so our aim is to give the team as much T20 exposure as possible,” Sumair told a press conference here.

Interestingly, even as the PCB officials engage with the West Indies board, the hosts have already begun sale of tickets for the originally-scheduled three T20Is and as many ODIs.

Pakistan is scheduled to play the T20s in Lauderhill, Florida and the ODIs in Trinidad.

The West Indies board has offered a special scheme to sell tickets, including a “buy one, get one free” deal. The single-ticket prices have been reduced by 50 per cent. For the ODIs, ticket prices range between USD 8 to 175.

But Sumair insisted the talks are still ongoing.

“For us, the preparations for the next T20 World Cup are a priority and that is why we lined up only T20Is against Bangladesh, and are also asking the West Indies board to increase the T20 matches and drop the ODIs,: he added.

“You’ll hear more about this in the next 1-2 days,” he added.

Sumair also mentioned that the squad for the West Indies tour will be announced once the match formats are finalised. If the ODIs remain in place, the board might name separate squads for the two formats.

The PCB is also trying to line up a T20I tri-series in the UAE with Afghanistan and the UAE, although it is Afghanistan which is due to play in Pakistan in August.