It looks like cricket in Pakistan is final on the route for a comeback as the West Indies Cricket Board has allowed agreed to send the West Indies team to Pakistan for a short three match T20 series. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi informed the media on Tuesday. The World XI team is currently in Lahore to play a three-match T20 series. ICC’s initiative to send a World XI team to Pakistan is to help cricket revive in Pakistan.
Sethi said:
“The agreement with the West Indies Cricket Board has been finalised and done and they have confirmed they will come to Lahore in November to play three T20 Internationals.”
Pakistan has not hosted any international match in Pakistan since the 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team which killed six police officers and wounded some Sri Lankan players. Although Pakistan managed to get Zimbabwe to tour Pakistan, the visit was not approved by the ICC. This effort by the cricket fraternity to bring cricket back in Pakistan is finally taking some shape.
Earlier Sri Lanka had also agreed to tour Pakistan to play one T20 in Lahore out of the three they are scheduled to play in the series which will be played in UAE. Also, this will be the first time since the 2009 attacks that Pakistan will have a proper international season at home.
However, PCB are hoping to convince Sri Lanka to play at least two T20’s in Lahore. Najam said:
“I am still trying to convince Sri Lanka to play at least two matches in the coming series in Lahore.”
Sethi believes that this tour by the West Indian team will open up the window for the PCB to open up talks with other boards as well.
Sethi is also looking forward to hold talks with Cricket South Africa as the current World XI team has five South African players in the side. He said:
“The PCB would holds talks with Cricket South Africa to consider sending the full South African team for a short bilateral series sometime next year.”
Sethi also spoke on adding other venues and the security measures disturbing the general public:
“Right now we are compelled to play only in Lahore but obviously with time we will schedule matches at other Test venues like Karachi, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan.”
“Right now we can’t take any risks. We know the security plans being enforced for the World XI matches are causing some inconvenience to the people. As we host more foreign teams we will have relaxations but without compromising on the security for visiting teams or our players.”