ISLAMABAD – *Pakistan’s cricket chiefs hope the country can host a fullseries by 2020, after a successful tour by the West Indies sparked hopes ofan international revival.*
The three-match series against the World Twenty20 champions, staged in theonce militancy-wracked port city of Karachi, was accompanied by a wave ofoptimism, with enthusiastic fans braving heavy security checks to expresstheir gratitude to the West Indies for the visit which ended Tuesday.
Last month Karachi also hosted the final of the popular Pakistan SuperLeague, the biggest cricket event in the city since a 2009 attack on thevisiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore drove international cricket from thecountry.
Pakistan was forced to host its international fixtures in the United ArabEmirates. But with security dramatically improving in the last three years,the Pakistan Cricket Board has been taking “gradual steps” to bring themback, PCB chairman Najam Sethi said.
“They are bearing positive results,” he told AFP.
“We will host more PSL matches next year and by that time almost all thetop international players from top cricketing nations will have played inPakistan,” he predicted.
“Then we can convince their boards to send national teams for a full seriesto Pakistan in 2020.”
His confidence is striking, coming after so many false starts.
Sri Lanka had agreed to return in 2011, but an attack on a Karachi navalbase derailed that hope. The PCB then convinced Ireland to tour in 2014,only to have the trip cancelled after militants attacked the Karachiairport.
Bangladesh also declined tours not once but twice out of unspecifiedsecurity concerns, after initially agreeing in 2012.
But in 2015 the sound of the Pakistani national anthem rang out at Lahore’sGaddafi Stadium once more as minnows Zimbabwe became the firstinternational team to return.
Unprecedented security was put in place with some 30,000 policemen andmilitary personnel on guard as spectators braved heat and securitycheckpoints to attend the first international match in the country in sixyears.
*– Bringing cricket home –*
Not everyone touted it as a success. “What kind of message of peace will wesend abroad by arranging the match after closing down shops and roads?”grumbled former Pakistan captain-turned-politician Imran Khan at the time.
But security has continued to improve under a military crackdown, andconfidence has been steadily growing, despite continued sporadic attacksand strong warnings from critics that Pakistan has not done enough to getto the root causes of extremism.
In 2017 Pakistan hosted the PSL final in Lahore. Some top foreign players —like Kevin Pietersen of England, Shane Watson of Australia and RileeRossouw of South Africa — stayed away.
But those who came, like double World Twenty20 winning West Indian captainDarren Sammy, were won over.
That led to a visit by a World XI side, then the emotional return by theSri Lankan team in October last year, a hugely symbolic event that also sawPakistanis turn out in their thousands to welcome the visitors with openarms.
Sammy — a Pakistani crowd favourite — returned for two PSL play-offs inLahore and the final in Karachi this year, and his presence influencedformer teammates Andre Fletcher, Samuel Badree and Chadwick Walton to bepart of the West Indies team.
Security remained an enormous issue, however, with massive, head-of-statelevel arrangements made for each visit. A security company appointed by theInternational Cricket Council (ICC) under its Pakistan Task Team hadgreenlit the matches.
“We realised that matches caused inconvenience for Lahorites andKarachiites, but they were a big gain for Pakistan,” Sethi said.
Now the PCB is setting its sights on bigger teams, with hopes that sidessuch as South Africa could tour by next year. Pakistan’s Interior Ministerhas also invited the England team to come.
Former Pakistan captain-turned-commentator Ramiz Raja praised the effortsin a newspaper column recently.
Pakistan, he wrote, “will fight tooth and nail to bring internationalcricket back home”. APP-AFP