Proteas in Pakistan

This is by far the biggest news on the revival of international cricket in Pakistan. South African team — as confirmed by both the PCB and Cricket South Africa — is all set to tour Pakistan early next year to play two ICC World Test Championship fixtures and three T20Is at three major centres in the country. The Proteas are scheduled to start their tour from Karachi on January 16 with the first Test from January 26-30. They will then move to Rawalpindi to play the second Test from February 4-8 and then to Lahore to feature in three T20Is on February 11, 13 and 14.

Since the 2009 terrorist attack on the bus taking Sri Lankan cricketers to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan has only hosted a star-less Sri Lankan team for a full length tour, in September-October 2019. Thus a full-strength South African team coming down to Pakistan is real good news not just for the players, officials and fans, but also for the game of cricket and sports in general. More than that it’s a welcome news for the government and the state as regards their efforts to project a soft image of Pakistan the world over and undo the wrong perception of the country being a no-go for foreigners.

PSL seems to have been a major contributing factor to the South African cricketers agreeing to visit Pakistan. Payers like Faf du Plessis, Cameron Delport, Dane Vilas, David Wiese, Rilee Rossouw, Imran Tahir and Hardus Viljoen have had a good time in Pakistan — in terms of security as well as the cricketing environment — representing their teams in the premier league. They are highly likely to have shared their good experiences of playing in Pakistan with others, paving that way for what is going to be the first South African tour of Pakistan after 14 long years. This leaves no excuse for other big teams to avoid Pakistan any more. Kudos to the cricket board officials!

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2020.

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