Pakistan is safe for international cricket: Malaysian cricket officials

Manager applauds PCB for organising tour without hiccups

LAHORE: Officials of the visiting Malaysian cricket team have termed Pakistan a safe country for holding international cricket events and said they would visit the country again in April on a preparatory tour.

"Pakistan is an ideal country for staging top cricket events and as far as security is concerned it was perfectly alright and we enjoyed playing cricket here," manager Shankar Retinam and coach Bilal Asad told APP as the team prepared for departure after a ten-day tour to Lahore.

The Malaysian team, which was beaten 3-0 in the one-day matches by the NCA Youth XI gave a scare to the home team by winning the opening T20 match. However, NCA XI hit back and won the following T20 to level the series 1-1.

Shankar said Pakistan has been deprived of international cricket in last many years and called for resumption of international cricket in Pakistan.

"Things are quite good for international cricket [in Pakistan]. Our tour ended without any hiccups and we do not see any problem here as far as security is concerned," he said.

The Malaysian team manager said Pakistan has a rich cricket history which is evident from its achievements at the international level and it has produced many big players of the game.

"It is unfortunate that international cricket is not being played in Pakistan and it is in the larger interest of the game that international cricket should resume here as early as possible," he said. “If there will be no international cricket in the country, there will be less opportunities for the young players to learn and to compete with top players of world cricket in their own backyard."

He said it was an honour for his team to play at the famous Gaddafi Stadium and his team learned a lot during the tour and got needed exposure and experience for its coming assignments in near future.

Coach Bilal Asad, a former first-class Pakistani player, endorsed the views of the manager and said there is no security issue in Pakistan to play cricket.

"Things are perfect here for staging and playing international cricket," he said. "Before the start of the tour, we heard similar propaganda on security but we did not listen to it and finalised our tour to Pakistan for learning and betterment of our team keeping an eye on its future commitments."

Both the team officials expressed their gratitude to Pakistan Cricket Board for hosting the Malaysian team.