KARACHI: Salahuddin Ahmed Sallu, the former chief selector and advisor to Chairman PCB for the Southern Region, on Monday said the staging of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final on March 25 and the subsequent T20 series against the West Indies brings back international cricket for the Karachiites after a gap of almost ten years and has sent a wave of excitement and happiness among the citizens of the metropolis who have time and again displayed their love for sports during the past many decades.

“It is a fantastic and very positive development for the Karachiites who, of course, have been starved of top level international cricket since 2008 when the Asia Cup was held here,” said Sallu while talking to media on Monday.

“For this, the credit must go to the tireless and sincere efforts of PCB and its Chairman Najam Sethi and his entire team who have pulled off the impossible by bringing the PSL final and the T20 series against the West Indies here in this city.”

He said that the successful and high standard renovation of the National Cricket Stadium has added to the fervour of the upcoming games and the tremendous response from the fans is ample proof of that. “I must also thank the Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, the Law Enforcement Agencies and the civic agencies who are working day and night to make these matches successful and incident free.”

Sallu, a former Test cricketer, hoped that year 2018 will bring more fruitful and exciting news for Pakistan cricket and more and more foreign teams and players will visit the country to revive international cricket at full scale.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2018