Najam Sethi, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, put to rest all speculations regarding the World XI tour to Pakistan, confirming on Monday (August 21), a three-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan in Lahore, starting September 10.
A 15-member squad led by former Zimbabwe great Andy Flower will take part in a seven-day long camp in Dubai before heading to Lahore for the series. However, the bigger news is Windies is set to tour the cricket-starved nation for a three-match T20I series in Lahore in late November.
Sethi also stated that the three games against World XI will be played across four days, but refused to divulge the dates citing security reasons.
“CWI and PCB are advancing discussions that will see the West Indies play three T20I matches in Lahore in late November,” read the statement. “In September, October and November, we’ll have the World XI, we’ll have Sri Lankan team and then the West Indies (come play in Pakistan).
“We just hope that the security we’ve promised, we’ll keep it up. Sri Lanka have said they’ll come after the World XI, provided the security is fine. It will be fine, Punjab government has indicated that the preparation are in full swing. At the end of this month, ICC’s security team is also arriving. So far all signals are good,” Sethi added. He also stated that talks with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) were still on over the number of games to be played.
While the Punjab Government approved ‘Presidential level security’ for the week-long World XI series in Lahore, Sethi expressed his desire to host a few games in the other cities too, notably Karachi. “I have the desire to take some games out of Lahore and host them in Karachi, but everyone I speak to reject that idea. They tell me that we’ve succeeded in hosting something well in Lahore (PSL 2 final) so keep that going. First host the PSL in Karachi, then we will come there.”
Pakistan, who haven’t hosted any high-profile international cricket ever since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009, lost their share of cricket matches during the 2011 World Cup which was co-hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The only teams who travelled to Pakistan in this period were Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. The peaceful hosting of the Pakistan Super League 2017 final in Lahore painted a positive image in their bid towards bringing international cricket back to their country.
“This is my objective. I had given myself a mission statement – to organise PSL, to bring it to Pakistan, to bring international cricket to Pakistan. Game development needs to be done, fund raising needs to be done – and all that we’re going to do slowly. And I also want to try to professionalise PCB,” Sethi said.
