LAHORE: The Sri Lanka Cricket (SC) has announced that a security delegation from the island will visit Pakistan to assess the security situation here before deciding whether to allow their national side to play a scheduled Test series in Pakistan this October.

According to a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) media release on Monday, the SCL security team would undertake the trip next month.

“The PCB is in touch with Sri Lanka Cricket on this subject and we have been assured that a security delegation will visit Pakistan next month,” a PCB spokesman said here on Monday. “Exact dates and details of the visit of the security delegation will be announced in due course of time.”

Pakistan has virtually had become ‘no-go’ area for foreign teams following deadly terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus in Lahore in March 2009. Zimbabwe, however, travelled to Lahore for a series of ODI in 2015.

In late 2017, a World XI played three T20 fixtures in Lahore before Sri Lanka agreed to play the last game of their T20 series against Pakistan in Lahore. The West Indies then visited Karachi for three T20 matches in April 2018.

A number of overseas cricketers have been featuring in the Pakistan leg matches of the Pakistan Super League since 2017 (when Lahore also staged the final) while Karachi not only held the last two finals of the PSL but also successfully staged several PSL games earlier this year.

However, major teams from England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and even Asian sides such as India, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan are still reluctant at resuming bilateral cricket with Pakistan.

The PCB has also claims that top officials from England and Australia will be visiting the country either at the end of this month or August to assess the security before taking a firm decision in regards to sending their teams to Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2019