Cricket: good news
A couple of good news have emerged from sports arenas in Pakistan — more specifically from the cricket field. While the Zimbabwe cricket team has already arrived in Pakistan — and the six-match tour, comprising three ODIs and three T20Is, is all set to start tomorrow with the first one-dayer at the Pindi Cricket Stadium — England and South Africa are also considering cricket tours to the country that has hosted a very few international matches since the terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore on March 3, 2009.
Media reports say that the English team is likely to tour Pakistan in January to play three T20Is as a return gesture over the Greenshirts visiting England in August-September 2020 for three T20Is and as many Tests despite the coronavirus situation. Even though England was expected to reciprocate with a full-fledged tour, we should welcome whatever is coming up under the circumstances. In further good news, the Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday that it would send a security team to Pakistan over the weekend to assess the situation for playing in the country in early 2021. If the tour goes ahead, it will be South Africa’s first visit to Pakistan since 2007-08.
Since the 2009 attack, Pakistan has only hosted a star-less Sri Lankan team for a full length tour, in September-October 2019. Even though we were able to protect our guests, the incident was enough to scare foreign sportsmen away from Pakistan. In May 2015, Zimbabwe helped cricket revival in Pakistan by making a tour to play three ODIs and two T20Is. Then in October 2017, the Sri Lankan team came down to Lahore for a day to play a lone T20I match while the ICC World Eleven and the West Indies have also played short T20 series in Pakistan in the last two years. And now the good news from England and South Africa shows that PCB’s efforts for bringing an end to the drought of international cricket in the country have started bearing fruit.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2020.
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