ISLAMABAD Former Pakistan test captain Javed Miandad hopes England`s decision to resume its tour of India will help foreign teams have confidence in also playing in his country.

`I welcome the England team`s return to India despite the deadly attacks in Mumbai,` Miandad, who is now Pakistan Cricket Board director general, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

`It`s a lesson of peace and a defeat for terrorists,` he added.

`I sincerely hope that foreign teams will also start playing cricket in Pakistan, and it starts with the Indian cricket team`s tour to Pakistan next month,` Miandad said.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has sought its government`s clearance to tour Pakistan for three-tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international between January 4 and February 19.

Pakistan is the only one of the nine test-playing nations which will end 2008 without playing a test match.

It was scheduled to play three tests in March, but Australia postponed its tour due to security concerns.