LAHORE: The four-member security delegation of the England and Wales Cricket Board spent a busy day in Lahore to inspect security arrangements for its team’s tour of Pakistan in September-October this year which will mark its first visit to the country in 17 years.

England are due to face Pakistan in seven Twenty20 Internationals during September-October before coming back in November to play a three-Test series.

The security delegation, which included Richard Snowball, Robert Lynch, John Carr and Reg Dickason visited the home secretary office, the Punjab Safe City Project, the team hotel and the National High Performance Centre.

Having arrived in Lahore after a day-long inspection in Karachi on Wednesday, the delegation will visit the Gaddafi Stadium on Friday before heading home in the wee hours on Saturday.

England, who last toured Pakistan in 2005, were due to tour Pakistan in October last year for two T20s before withdrawing from the series.

It soured relations between the ECB and the Pakistan Cricket Board before the former agreed to compensate for that loss by agreeing to play two additional matches during its five-game tour scheduled for this year.

The PCB plans to host the Twenty20 matches in Lahore and Karachi while the proposed venues for the three Tests are Karachi, Rawalpindi and Multan.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2022