I never have had the experience of covering a game of cricket from inside a strongly guarded fortress which is what one of the major arenas of the game — the Gaddafi Stadium — will be turned into today for staging the PSL final as a showpiece event to emphasise to the world that Pakistan is now ready to host international teams once again.

Desperate fans will no doubt fill the ground up to have an evening of fun after having gone through the pain and torture of securing an entry ticket in return of huge sums of money for the sake of watching a final of a tournament which itself was not held in Pakistan because of security reasons.

This itself does not speak much of the idea of holding its final and that too without the major players of at least one of the two teams — the Quetta Gladiators — not in attendance.

A free entry to the ground would have been a great gift for cricket in Pakistan instead of making people pay heavily for an evening of fun and entertainment which it will be for everyone present.

If only the players, who opted out following the guidelines of their country’s policy of not risking their citizens and their families, were to be seen in such an event it would at least had served some purpose for which the game is being played.

Pakistan is one of the major cricket playing countries of the world and it indeed is no less than a tragedy that for more than seven years now, we have been unable to stage international cricket for reasons beyond our control.

Inadequate efforts to bring sanity in the day to day working of the country have seen the governance systems faltering badly, primarily due to corruption and mismanagement at all levels, cricket inclusive.

This does not mean that efforts have not been made at all to bring back things to normality and make the people feel secured. But somehow nothing so far seems to have come to fruition.

The fear, therefore, looms for a common man in the street, be it the sporting arena or a shopping mall or in a political protest.

The decision to play PSL final has its supporters and also its critics no doubt. It is not because they do not want international cricket to return to Pakistan but because the danger and the threat that is involved in taking such a risk.

I personally think that now that this event finally has come out to be a reality and security resources are in force to stage it, we should all get behind it to support and back those who have dared to take this risk in the quest to bring international cricket back to Pakistan.

This in the end may not matter much for those who are not interested in playing their cricket on Pakistan soil, but the final will at least generate a whole lot of interest in the game and its supporters in Pakistan who will at least have a glimpse of the foreign players and the players of their own country in flesh playing in a Test arena in Pakistan.

Quetta Gladiators have done well to be in the final but without its foreign players are a depleted combination and Peshawar Zalmi without Shahid Afridi will no doubt feel the pinch.

I will not be there but I can wish them well who have organized it and those who will participate in it. May the best team on the day win.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2017