KARACHI: Pakistan’s cricket authorities must have taken a big sigh of relief on Tuesday when Zimbabwe finally agreed to send their team here for a brief limited-overs series.
Despite earlier confirmation, there were clouds of uncertainty on the proposed tour after reports suggested that several Zimbabwean players were reluctant about making the trip because of security concerns.
But a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told ‘The News’ on Tuesday that the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) has finally agreed that the tour will take place.
“We have agreed on all the terms and conditions and Zimbabwe are now coming to play a series in Pakistan,” the official said.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that in spite of its all out efforts, PCB failed to convince Zimbabwe to play some of the matches in Karachi.
It means that the five-match series will be a one-venue affair as all the games will be played at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium because of security concerns.
The series will get underway with two Twenty20 Internationals and later Pakistan and Zimbabwe will play three One-day Internationals. The series will begin on May 19 and conclude on June 1.
It will be a ground-breaking series considering that Pakistan has been forced to play designated ‘home’ matches in the UAE since March 2009 following an attack by militants on a Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore.
Zimbabwe will be the first Test-playing nation in six years to visit the country.
Two Associate countries, Kenya and Afghanistan, have toured Pakistan recently but the impact of those tours was not strong enough to help the PCB convince other Test nations.