KARACHI: The outgoing chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shaharyar Khan has invited the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar to visit Lahore next month.

Shaharyar confirmed on Monday that he had spoken to Manohar during the ICC meetings in London last month and extended an invitation to him.

“Manohar said he will look into the invitation and try to make it. But nothing is confirmed yet,” the PCB chief was quoted as saying according to a report on The Times of India website.

Sources close to Shaharyar said he had invited Manohar, a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, to formally attend a farewell reception which will be given to the him in Lahore.

The PCB is set to elect a new chairman at its governing board meeting later this month but Shaharyar will complete his three-year term in mid-August.

“The idea behind inviting Manohar to Lahore is to also finalise the World XI’s tour to Pakistan in September as the ICC has shown its support for the tour,” the source said.

Najam Sethi, who heads the PCB’s executive committee and is expected to succeed Shaharyar, said the ICC will make the decision of who will lead the World XI to Lahore.

“We see the World XI tour as the beginning of good times for Pakistan cricket and that is why we are giving it so much importance,” Sethi said.

No top Test team has toured Pakistan since March 2009 when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore.

Shaharyar also confirmed that the PCB was still trying to convince the Sri Lankan cricket board to send its team to Lahore to play a few T20 matches this year, while he said that the board had dropped the idea of inviting new Test entrants — Ireland — to Pakistan.

“We had invited Ireland in recent times but they have asked for fees to come to Pakistan and right now we are not in a position to afford such expenses,” Shaharyar said.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2017