COLOMBO: Sri Lanka have given consent to visit Pakistan in September, potentially becoming the first high-profile team to tour the country which has played most of its home international matches in the United Arab Emirates in the last eight years due to security situation.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Monday approved the tour after its chief Thilanga Sumathipala said that following a security assessment, the team had been cleared to play three Twenty20 Internationals including ‘at least one’ in Lahore, scene of the 2009 attack which left eight people dead and wounding six players.

“We have had our security experts visit and make an assessment, and things look positive with things improving all over the country and especially Lahore being cleared,” Mr Sumathipala was quoted as saying in a statement.

Pakistan has since been largely starved of international cricket, apart from a short visit by Zimbabwe in 2015.

Their full series against Sri Lanka in the UAE may see the return of international cricket on home soil.

“I am keen to take my team to Pakistan,” SLC president Sumathipala said at the Asian Cricket Council’s annual general meeting in Colombo.

“We have three T20 games coming up against Pakistan in September and we would like to play at least one of those games in Lahore.”

The International Cricket Council also wants to support the tour of a World XI to Pakistan next month, subject to security clearance, for a three-match T20 series to help revive international cricket in the country.

Mr Sumathipala called for support for Pakistan from the Asian neighbours.

“I call upon each one of you as members to play your role and give Pakistan the security of your support,” he added. “There is always risk — there were two attacks in London during the Champions Trophy — but cricket continued under the security assurances of the ICC, so likewise we too must be as accommodating and understanding as possible with our members and extend our fullest support to them as the cricketing family of Asia.”

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials welcomed the decision, lauding the move on social media.

“Thank you Mr Thilanga Sumathipala. We look forward to hosting you and the Sri Lankan team,” the PCB wrote on Twitter.

Mr Sumathipala also urged upon other countries to end Pakistan’s isolation by playing there.

He recalled that several Test-playing nations did not want to visit Sri Lanka at the height of the Tamil separatist conflict, when bombs were exploding in the capital in the mid-1990s.

“Sri Lanka suffered through three decades of terrorism and war and at one stage no one wanted to come here — Pakistan stood by us then, as did India,” Mr Sumathipala said.

Sri Lanka ended its long-running ethnic war in May 2009 when the top Tamil rebel leadership was wiped out in a military offensive that sparked allegations that 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by troops.

The SLC statement also quoted PCB chairman Najam Sethi as saying they had set up state-of-the-art security and surveillance to make their cities safe.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017