The Pakistan Cricket Board has formally invited Sri Lanka for a return series later in the year after the Interior Ministry assured top level security to the visiting team. Sri Lanka are due to play a complete series against Pakistan but after the attack on their team three years back, players are not willing to revisit Pakistan and the Sri Lankan board first said that they would follow the advice of the International Cricket Council in fulfilling the FTP (Future Tours Programme) obligation. But later during the World Cup their official offered to host the series in Sri Lanka.
The PCB agreed to move the series to Sri Lanka and were also planning to host the Pakistan and England next year’s series in Sri Lanka. But now the Interior Ministry has gave full assurance of providing foolproof security and asked the PCB to go ahead with the series and invite the foreign teams. After the assurances from the ministry, the PCB has written a formal letter to the Sri Lankan Cricket Board for hosting their team in the coming August. The teams have to play three Test matches, five ODIs and a couple of T20 games.
An official of the PCB stated that as the government has offered complete security they have to comply by the directions and invite the Sri Lankans. “Now it depends on their (SL Board) reply. At the moment we cannot say anything about the holding of the series. And everything will be finalized after we received their positive reply and in case they have reservations to play in Pakistan then we would go for other options,” he said.
