KARACHI: Pakistan is planning to use this season’s double-leg home series against Sri Lanka as a platform to convince world cricket bosses that it is a safe venue for international events like the eight-nation ICC Champions Trophy.
A senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told Arab News that Ijaz Butt, the Board chairman, is expected to send out invitations to top International Cricket Council (ICC) officials to come and witness Pakistan’s Test matches against Sri Lanka next month to have a first-hand experience of the security cover offered to visiting cricketers and officials by Pakistan.
Saleem Altaf, the PCB chief operating officer, said that Butt may also extend a similar invitation to his Cricket Australia counterpart when he visits Perth later this month to attend an ICC Executive Board meeting.
Pakistan is supposed to host the ICC Champions Trophy in October this year but it all depends on the security situation in the country. The biennial spectacle was to take place in Pakistan last September but the ICC was forced to postpone it after five of the eight competing teams raised security apprehension about the Pakistan visit.
Pakistan is also scheduled to host Australia for a one-day series in April but Cricket Australia has said that it would assess the security situation in Pakistan before confirming the tour.
“The Sri Lanka series in Pakistan can be used as a yardstick by the ICC and Cricket Australia,” said Altaf, a former Pakistan Test cricketer.
“Now that the series against India is not happening, the only opportunity for others to see for themselves that Pakistan is a safe destination for cricket is the series against Sri Lanka,” he added.
India refused to tour Pakistan for a much-awaited series that was supposed to take place in January-February because of strained relations between the two governments over last November’s terror attacks in Mumbai.
Pakistan invited Sri Lanka to fill in for India who agreed to play three One day Internationals and two Tests.
Sri Lanka will play the one-day series here later this month and will return to Pakistan next month for the two Tests.
Altaf said that he expects that both the ICC and Cricket Australia will use this opportunity to carry our security assessments.
“There is a big possibility that the PCB chairman will invite his counterparts in ICC and Cricket Australia to visit Pakistan during the Test series (against Sri Lanka,” said Altaf.
Butt is scheduled to attend the ICC Executive Board meeting in Perth on Jan. 31. He is planning to meet top ICC and CA officials on the sidelines of the ICC moot.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is making efforts to ensure foolproof security arrangements for Sri Lanka cricketers and officials ahead of the ODI series opener in Karachi on Jan. 21.
Altaf said that a senior Board official recently carried out high-level meeting with top government functionaries in the Punjab which will host the last two one-dayers in Lahore and Multan.
“The visiting players and officials will get a VVIP security cover,” said Altaf.
