The Pakistan Cricket Board has on Wednesday welcomed the Bangladesh efforts of convincing the foreign team to tour Pakistan. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Mustafa Kamal is on a special mission here in India, which is to try and convince the other nations to tour Pakistan.
An official of the PCB said that it’s a welcome gesture the BCB has taken. “Pakistan has always stood with Bangladesh and will always support it. And hope for a similar backing from Bangladesh,” he maintained. Kamal said that he is in India to witness the IPL and will also talk to other teams to visit Pakistan. “Due to political reasons, the Indian team is not touring Pakistan. But I shall try to convince the other boards like South Africa, England etc to send their teams to Pakistan,” he said.
“For how long can we neglect Pakistan? How long can they host their ‘home’ series at neutral venues?” he asked. “We cannot ignore Pakistan like this.” According to Mustafa, Bangladesh does not have any issue relating to neutral or non-neutral match officials for the Pakistan tour, but the BCB obviously is looking for whole-hearted support from the ICC regarding the tour. “Our team will tour Pakistan. I don’t know when it would happen. What if we go there only and other boards continue to ignore Pakistan,” he said. “I shall take up this issue in the ICC board meeting. I want a full-fledged approval from the ICC for the tour,” added Mustafa. “Yes, we have received security report from government of Bangladesh (the report has not been prepared by the BCB). It is a neutral report. It is neither positive nor negative,” he informed.
Since the Lahore attack, Pakistan have had to play all their ‘home’ matches on foreign soil, mostly in the United Arab Emirates, and their share of 2011 World Cup games was moved out of the country for security reasons.
