ISLAMABAD- Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Najam Sethi hope the country canhost a full series by 2020, after a successful tour by the West Indiessparked hopes of an 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, Sethi said.
“They are bearing positive results,” he told.
“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 manyfalse 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.