LAHORE: Pakistan’s decision to tour England despite the risks of travelling during the Covid-19 pandemic was not part of a reciprocal agreement but the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) expects its English counterpart to “do the right thing” in 2022.
Pakistan are the second Test team, after West Indies, to tour England this summer. They will play three Tests, the first beginning on Wednesday, and three Twenty20 Internationals in bio-secure venues in Manchester and Southampton.
England last visited Pakistan in 2005 and are slated to return in 2022, but the top teams have so far declined to tour since a 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore.
PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said on Thursday that the tour of England would stand them in good stead.
“Will that benefit Pakistan cricket in future? Of course it will,” he told a PCB podcast.
“Have we struck a deal with them right now for them to come? ... Of course we didn’t. Now is not the time to do that. It’s all about timing.
“Conversations will take place with ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) and they will do the right thing by us as well.”
After years of staging ‘home’ Tests in neutral venues due to security concerns, Pakistan played their first Test on home soil since 2009 against Sri Lanka in December last year and have hosted Bangladesh this year.
Wasim said the PCB had put the game’s interests ahead of its own.
“We are making decisions not just for what’s good for Pakistan, but what’s right for global cricket,” he said.
“Showing solidarity is absolutely the right thing for us to be doing. West Indies are doing it, we’ve done it.”
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2020
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