Buoyed by the success of the Pakistan Super League final (PSL), the International Cricket Council is reportedly planning to send a World XI to Pakistan in September for a four-match Twenty20 series in Lahore.
No top Test team has visited Pakistan since March 2009 when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore. Zimbabwe played a short limited-overs series in Lahore in May 2015 but big teams are still reluctant to visit the country due to security concerns. But Pakistan have shown that they are ready to host international teams again after successfully staging the PSL final.
According to a report in The Guardian, the governing body of the game is keen to build on the PSL success and sending a team of internationals players is seen as a big step towards
taking international cricket back to Pakistan on a permanent basis.
Giles Clarke, the ECB president and head of the ICC’s Pakistan Task Force, is trying his best to end the international cricket drought in Pakistan.
“The desire is to give the cricket-starved Pakistani supporters the chance to see some of the world’s finest players in live action,” Clarke said. “The world of cricket needs to help Pakistan, who cannot continue to play their home fixtures overseas. The youth need inspiring, and the national teams need far more cricket played in familiar terrain. Furthermore, the terrorists cannot win and cricket must not give up on Pakistan.”
Dawid Malan, who was one of the few overseas players to play in the final, had said he agreed to travel to Lahore after being briefed on the security arrangements.
“As soon as they brought out how tough it would be to get to the players, I almost felt it was my duty to come and represent the team and do the right thing by them,” he had said before the final. “Despite all the concerns that there have been in Pakistan, there has been an initiative to try to bring top-class cricket back to the country.”
Fortunately, the final was played without any trouble and Pakistan will be desperately hoping to build on the huge success.
Darren Sammy, who led Peshawar Zalmi to a 58-run win in the final, also heaped praise on the arrangements done for the final.
“To me, it was more than just a game,” he had said after the match. “When you have not been in a place you always have your doubts. You get different views, different opinions. But I spoke to Javed [Afridi, the Peshawar team owner] and Shahid Afridi and they influenced my decision to come here.
“The fans here deserve to see their players playing as they haven’t seen it for quite a while. I am glad I came here. Being here felt like playing in St Lucia, playing in India or anywhere else in the world. And like I said at the toss, today I felt cricket was the winner,” he had added.
Meanwhile, The Guardian has reported that the visiting team will land in Dubai on September 17 before flying to Lahore for the matches on September 22, 23, 28 and 29.