The Pakistan Cricket Board has turned down a request from their Afghanistan counterparts to host a one-day series between the two national teams. But the PCB has agreed to host a one-day series involving Pakistan A team and the Afghanistan national team.
Officials of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) met with the PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt to discuss the cricket relations and requested them to consider hosting a one-day series.
“We explained to the Afghanistan officials that it was not possible for our national team to play the ODI series this year due to its international schedule and domestic season requirements,” a PCB official said. “But we told them we are ready to help them out improve their cricket standards and structure by playing series involving the Pakistan A team,” the official added. Afghanistan are keen to tour Pakistan for a one-day international series and have insisted they have no issues with the security situation in Pakistan.
“The series between our A team and Afghanistan will be organised sometime in June and July,” the official said.
Pakistan has in the past also facilitated the Afghanistan Board by allowing their players to train at the national cricket academy in Lahore and permitting some of them to play in domestic cricket. At present the Afghanistan Board is hosting its domestic tournament in Peshawar with the cooperation of the Peshawar District Cricket Association. Five regional teams and the national under-19 team from Afghanistan are taking part in the domestic event in which three-day matches are being played at two grounds.
Pakistan has not been able to host any international team since the militants attack on the Sri Lankan team in March, 2009. But Naseemullah, the chief executive of the ACB, said they had no issues playing in Pakistan. “We will be sending our national team to Pakistan without any fear and our players are also keen to get exposure against stronger sides,” he said. He said that PCB has already cooperated a lot with them and helped Afghanistan cricket and the coming tour would be a big boost for the Afghani players.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is still waiting for a clearance from the foreign ministry to invite an under-19 team of the India’s Punjab Cricket Association for a short series in June-July this year.
A PCB official confirmed that the foreign ministry and interior ministry had still not given clearance for the Indian team’s tour. “We have not given up hope and the clearance could come soon. But since the tour involves a foreign team we can’t move ahead without clearance from the government,” a PCB official said. The Pakistan board had reached an agreement with the PCA some months back under which home and away matches are to be organised this year.
In the first leg, the PCA team is to tour Pakistan in June to play a couple of one-day and T20 matches in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Rawalpindi while in September the Pakistan Punjab team will tour India to play matches in Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Amritsar.
The PCB official said that because of the security situation in the country the government would obviously look at certain things before giving clearance.
“We still have time so we are waiting. But we have moved for permission,” he said. Pakistan and India have not had any bilateral cricket ties since Mumbai terror attacks in November, 2008. Since than India has not toured Pakistan while they have also not invited Pakistani players to India. Pakistan played the World Cup semi-final at Mohali in March but that was because it was a ICC event. Pakistan has been pushing for India to resume bilateral cricket ties and the official said they saw the tour by the Indian Punjab team as a positive steps toward revival of series between the national teams of two countries.
The official also confirmed that so far no decision had been made on the venues for the full series against Sri Lanka later in the year.
Sri Lanka under the ICC’s Future Tour Program are due to tour Pakistan but security issues have led to them not confirming whether they would play in Pakistan or prefer to play the matches at neutral venues. Pakistan has requested the Sri Lankans to play at least one or two ODIs in Pakistan and the remaining matches of the series in UAE in a bid to get foreign teams to tour Pakistan by next year.
