ICC Test championship: Pakistan convince Sri Lanka to play in Lahore, Karachi

The cricketing world is focusing on the upcoming ICC World Cup at the moment but there is another big event coming up this year and it is the ICC World Test Championship which will kick off in July and continue till June 2021 when the winner will be decided. Nine top-ranked Test sides will compete for the laurels by playing six series on a home-and-away basis against mutually selected opponents. The championship is set to kick off with a two-match series between the Windies and India in the Caribbeans. A bilateral series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand will also take place around the same time as part of the championship.

Pakistan will be playing their first series under the championship against Lanka and they were set to play the two games of the series in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) starting October this year. The UAE has served as the home of the Pakistan cricket team ever since international sides stopped touring the country over security reasons. In March 2009, a near-fatal terror attack on a visiting Sri Lankan national side in Pakistan had rocked the cricketing fraternity and countries refused to travel there.

The cricketers and support teams were airlifted from the middle of the ground in Lahore in an unprecedented development. Of late, things have gradually returned to normalcy though Pakistan are yet to host major teams on their actual home soil.

However, it has been learnt that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has succeeded in convincing Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to play the two matches of the scheduled Test series in Lahore and Karachi, respectively, instead of the UAE. Saj Sadiq, editor of PakPassion confirmed this in a tweet.

Reports: The Pakistan Cricket Board has had successful talks with Sri Lanka Cricket and convinced them to play two Test matches of the ICC Test Championship in Lahore and Karachi #Cricket

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) April 11, 2019

Sri Lanka are also scheduled to play in three ODIs and as many T20Is besides the two Tests on this tour that will continue till December 2019. Pakistan are then scheduled to tour Australia to play two Tests following which Bangladesh are set to play the former Asian Test champions in the UAE early next year.

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