Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ehsan Mani has held talks with the senior officials of Cricket South Africa (CSA) regarding a potential tour to Pakistan in 2019.
Ehsan Mani is optimistic about South Africa cricket team visiting Pakistan, after his latest meeting with local officials, according to local media which quoted the PCB chief as saying that the CSA may soon send their senior, junior or women’s sides to Pakistan.
“I reiterated that Pakistan is safe country to come and play cricket and the security situation in the country is drastically improved,” said Mani, according to a news report. “We had talks about South Africa sending their senior, junior or women’s team to Pakistan in the near future.”
He added, “CSA will review ICC’s report about security situation in Pakistan while also sending their own security experts to Pakistan for the same purpose.”
NO SARFRAZ-ARTHUR RIFT:
On the dressing room controversy during Pakistan’s first Test against South Africa at Centurion, the PCB head said that the story was “greatly exaggerated”.
Although Mani was concerned about how the media got their hands on the details of an internal team meeting as he believes that such things should not be discussed outside the dressing room.
He further stated that there was no rift between captain Sarfraz Ahmed and Head Coach Mickey Arthur, after holding separate meetings with both of them.
“The players were scolded but not in the manner reported by the media. Although I believe that details about such matters should stay inside the dressing room,” he said. “I had a meeting with both Sarfraz and Arthur and I can assure you that the talk about any rift between the captain and coach is not true.”
While talking about the future of Sarfraz, Mani said that: “This is not the time for such a conversation and we should back the captain during the ongoing series.”
On Pakistan’s first Test defeat against South Africa, Mani said that the second innings collapse — which saw Pakistan lost nine wickets for 89 runs — was the turning point of the match.
“Amla’s drop catch on the third morning of the Test and the wrong decision by TV umpire Joel Wilson — regarding Azhar Ali’s catch of Dean Elgar — had a major bearing on the outcome of the match,” he commented. “Also, the second innings batting collapse changed the course of the match.”