Australia’s no: not so bad

Cricket and Pakistan is a love affair which is unlikely to end anytime soon. However, due to the poor law and order situation in the country, the nation has been made to wait for years to see international cricket come back home. However, in the recent past, things have turned for the good as far as security conditions in the country are concerned. This led to the coming of Pakistan Super League 2 and 3 playoffs and finals and tours of International Cricket Council (ICC) World XI, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Zimbabwe to Pakistan.

But amid all this positivity, the Pakistan Cricket Board has suffered a setback as Australia refused to tour Pakistan for the upcoming five-match one-day international series in March this year. While the news has been taken as a setback, especially in the cricketing quarters of the country, this should not be the case. The Baggy Greens have not visited Pakistan for more than two decades now as they have always felt unsafe even before terrorism struck the country. It was because of this that the Green Caps had to face them in the UAE for the three-Test series in early 2000s.

With the Pakistan Super League season four coming up, eight matches are going to be played in the country, with Karachi hosting five and Lahore three, and a successful organisation of the matches would only pave the way for more teams to feel safe while playing in Pakistan. As former captain and famous commentator Ramiz Raja said, “Making sure that cricket returns completely to Pakistan is going to be a process with small steps involved in it.” It will perhaps take more than just few successful events to persuade teams to once again trust our security apparatus.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.