Former president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Ehsan Mani, is of the view that the methods adopted by the Pakistan Cricket Board in order to convince teams to tour Pakistan are flawed, and not likely to yield positive results. “The Bangladesh team not coming to Pakistan is a setback,” Mani said. “But I would say that the PCB’s strategy is totally wrong as they are, like, begging teams to come, which is wrong.” Pakistan, with a population of approximately 180 million, has been deprived of international cricketing events since 2009, when a group of terrorists targeted the visiting Sri Lankan team en route to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The attack, which left some players injured, and several civilians dead, raised serious doubts regarding the security situation in Pakistan, and foreign teams refused to tour the country. The revival of international cricket has been high on the PCB’s list of agendas ever since Zaka Ashraf took over as chairman from Ijaz Butt last year. However, the board’s approach to inviting teams has grown increasingly aggressive, as was revealed by the recent proposed series against Bangladesh. The PCB’s invitation to Bangladesh was initially welcomed, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) took the proposal into consideration. However, the security concerns eventually forced them to bow out of the deal. This move prompted a fairly aggressive response from the PCB, which claimed that Pakistan would be forced to reconsider their relations with the BCB if they did not proceed with the tour. Mani, however was quoted as saying, that he is convinced that the Bangladesh tour would not have had much of an effect anyway. “I can’t speculate whether Bangladesh Cricket Board wanted to send the team or not, but Bangladesh’s visit would not have convinced England or Australia,” he said. A proposed tour by the Canadian national team was also thrown into doubt recently, when the PCB’s announcement of the possible series was followed by a quick clarification from the Cricket Canada chief Doug Hannum, who stressed that it was a “potential tour”, with no formal talks having taken place.
