An inside report revealed Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is expected to spend around US$ three million for hosting the historic fixtures, in a bid to revive cricket in an embattled nation.
Following the promise shown by the administrators at the top-level between the world cricket governing body ICC and the PCB, the reports further suggested hefty amount could range from US$ 2.5 million which includes the expenditure on the security and hospitality for the players from seven countries.
Pertinently, many former players have had expressed an excitement after witnessing the major game taking place in Pakistan following the much-important visit of Zimbabwe in 2015 for the limited-overs series when other teams categorically denied to fly to Pakistan due to the security concerns.
The foreign players stated they are happy to be the part of the cause, as the crowd witnessed the players were paraded at the iconic Lahore Stadium in multi-coloured auto-rickshaws which further represented the culture and tradition of Pakistan.
The 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore on Sri Lankan team bus has brought miseries for the cricket fans in Pakistan, as the different stadiums across Pakistan didn’t witness international game since past eight years while barring the Lahore stadium which had also hosted the final of second edition of the Pakistan Super League in March this year between Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators.
As five players from South Africa have already accepted the signing as a goodwill gesture for Pakistan, the players are expected to fetch the sum of US$100,000 each following the completion of the series on September 15.
As PCB has been pushing hard to bring cricket back to Pakistan, the ICC’s Task force team-led by Giles Clarke stated he is happy to see cricket returning the country which has shown a lot for the teams in general.
The whooping amount has been spent to make the series possible by assembling the 14-member squad which is being led by South African skipper Faf du Plessis.
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Former Zimbabwe skipper and batsman Andy Flower believes gentleman’s game should return to Pakistan as much as the regular fixtures are taking place.
On the other side, PCB hasn’t made any announcement regarding the logistic costs, but it is believed that sponsors have been helping a lot to the cricket fraternity to make the resumption of cricket possible.
It has been pointed out that ICC is bound to pay $1.1 million for the security purpose after the specialists Nicholls Steyn and Reg Dickason were roped in by the body – to take care of the security apparatus.
If the series would conclude without any untoward incident it would be a major boost for Pakistan to see Sri Lanka and Windies travelling to the country in October and November respectively.
As games in Pakistan has been traditionally crowd-pulling, but this time around the stadium which has the capacity of 25,000 was filled with the sparse crowd before locals started coming to the ground.
After Pakistan won the first match by 20 runs, the second game is scheduled on September 13 (Wednesday) at 7:30 PM IST.