LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board’s executive committee chairman Najam Sethi has said they will organise the Pakistan Super League final in Lahore this year.

He added that he has cancelled Dubai Stadium’s booking for the final scheduled to be held on March 7.

“I have met Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and he was happy over the decision of holding the PSL final in Lahore,” Sehi said.

“The minister has promised all kinds of security and the Punjab government is also ready to help us, so, we have decided to cancel the booking of Dubai stadium to hold the final in Lahore,” he added.

Sethi, who is the chairman for the PSL, said the PCB had proposed the West Indies cricket board to play a series in Pakistan in March and assess security of the country by sending its delegation on Jan 17 and 18.

“We have proposed these dates for the West Indies’ security delegation because ICC Task Force on Pakistan chairman Giles Clarke will also be in Pakistan during those days.

“It will be better for us if the West Indies delegation visits Lahore on Jan 17-18 in the presence of Clarke, who is also working on reviving international cricket in Pakistan,” he said.

To a question, Sethi denied that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not ready to allow any larger scale activity in sports as any untoward incident could push back all the good work done for the CPEC so far.

“I have no idea about such views of the prime minister. As the interior minister has happily allowed us to hold the final in Lahore and the Punjab government is also committed for smooth conduct of the final, we take it as an important step forward in reviving cricket in Pakistan,” he said.

Recently, the Inter­national Tennis Federation, for the first time in 12 years, has allowed its Pakistan chapter to hold the Davis Cup tie in Islamabad while rejecting the appeal of Iran.

Published in Dawn January 4th, 2017