Pakistan firmly on road to cricket revival: PCB

KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket chiefs hope the country can host a full series by 2020, after a successful tour by the West Indies sparked hopes of an international revival.

The three-match series against the World Twenty20 champions in Karachi was accompanied by a wave of optimism, with enthusiastic fans braving heavy security checks to express their gratitude to the West Indies for the visit which ended Tuesday.

Last month Karachi also hosted the final of the popular Pakistan Super League, the biggest cricket event in the city since a 2009 attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore drove international cricket from the country.

Pakistan was forced to host its international fixtures in the UAE. But with security dramatically improving in the last three years, the Pakistan Cricket Board has been taking “gradual steps” to bring them back, PCB chairman Najam Sethi said.

“They are bearing positive results,” he said.

“We will host more PSL matches next year and by that time almost all the top international players from top cricketing nations will have played in Pakistan,” he predicted.

“Then we can convince their boards to send national teams for a full series to Pakistan in 2020.”

Not everyone touted it as a success. “What kind of message of peace will we send abroad by arranging the match after closing down shops and roads?” grumbled former Pakistan captain-turned-politician Imran Khan at the time.

Security remained an enormous issue, however, with massive, head-of-state level arrangements made for each visit. A security company appointed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) under its Pakistan Task Team had greenlit the matches.

“We realised that matches caused inconvenience for Lahorites and Karachiites, but they were a big gain for Pakistan,” Sethi said.

Now the PCB is setting its sights on bigger teams, with hopes that sides such as South Africa could tour by next year. Pakistan’s Interior Minister has also invited the England team to come.

Former Pakistan captain-turned-commentator Ramiz Raja praised the efforts in a newspaper column recently.

Pakistan, he wrote, “will fight tooth and nail to bring international cricket back home”. —AFP