THE recent of the Pakistan cricket team’s tour to Ireland in July due to the coronavirus pandemic is a setback to the respective cricket boards as well as to the game itself.

Cricket, like all other sports, has been severely hit, compelling the ICC and affiliated boards to desperately look for alternatives and reschedule tours.

Pakistan, too, is beginning to feel the heat.

Following the unfinished fifth edition of the PSL in February, back-to-back postponement of tours to the Netherlands and Ireland have come as an additional jolt to Pakistan that was looking forward to an unusually busy international calendar.

Quite often in the past, the PCB has been blamed for failing to negotiate a busy cricketing season.

With home assignments next to nil in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009, the players looked to the PCB to rope in overseas assignments to keep them motivated and earn a substantial sum.

It is, therefore, to the PCB’s credit that not only was home cricket revived, but a busy, lucrative season had also been planned.

The pandemic, though, is threatening to spoil all that.

While the Netherlands and Ireland tours include a few T20 games each, the PCB is really worried about the fate of the England tour in late July, which comprises a three-Test series and as many T20 Internationals.

The tour is equally, if not more, important for the England and Wales Cricket Board which is also grappling with the impact of the pandemic.

Both Pakistan and England appear willing to play behind closed doors if their respective governments, medical advice and time frames allow.

What must be admired, however, is that despite the postponed tours, the PCB has not resorted to desperate measures.

The board’s CEO Wasim Khan, though expressing his disappointment at the postponement of the Ireland tour, said it was absolutely the right thing to do as human lives were far more important than a cricket match or event.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2020