After years of drought, cricket is finally back in Pakistan.
A report in The Hindu says that After nearly three-and-a-half years, Pakistan will get a bit of international cricket at home over the weekend when the International World Eleven – led by the former Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jayasuriya — will take on Pakistan Star Eleven in Karachi in two T-20 matches.
This is the first time international cricketers – even if mostly retired from the game — will be playing in the country after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March 2009 in which seven members of the visiting squad were also injured.
Since then the ‘cricket-crazy’ nation fell off the cricket map and has had to settle for either watching the game on television or travel elsewhere for live action including home series matches hosted on neutral grounds. The Bangladesh cricket team was to tour Pakistan earlier this year for a one-day and a T-20 match in Lahore but it was stopped from doing so by the Dhaka High Court at the eleventh hour.
Since the international team has already arrived in Karachi, a last-minute cancellation is unlikely this time round. The event is the personal initiative of the Sindh Sports Minister Mohammad Ali Shah and the Pakistan Cricket Board has only provided the venue and made players available for the matches.
The Pakistan team will be led by Shahid Afridi and will have some players from the national squad including Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz and Umar Akmal. Also playing for Pakistan will be former captains Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik. Though most of the players on both sides are past their prime, reports about ticket sales from Karachi suggest that this by no means has dampened the enthusiasm for the contest among the nation’s cricket lovers.
Meanwhile, report in The Times of India says that The Pakistan Cricket Board is still awaiting the tour itinerary from its Indian counterpart for the much-anticipated bilateral series between the two countries later this year.
PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf told reporters that the BCCI was expected to send the final schedule for the series which is to be played in two months' time in India.
The BCCI has said that Pakistan will play three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches on the short tour that begins in the last week of December and ends in the first week of the new year.
It is the first bilateral series between the two countries after the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008.
The arch-rivals have not played a series since Pakistan's tour of India in 2007. The Indian and Pakistani cricket teams have only met in international tournaments since 2007.
"I had enquired from the BCCI officials during the recent ICC meeting in Colombo about the final schedule and they said they would send it soon. So we are also awaiting it. But obviously they will announce it as it is their home series," Ashraf was quoted in the report.
He said relations with the BCCI had been good in recent times and both boards have realised the importance of having regular bilateral cricket matches.
"The positive thing is after such a long time a bilateral series has been okayed and obviously the schedule will be announced after proper clearances," he added.