Najam Sethi expects Bangladesh to tour Pakistan in 2018

The mastermind behind Pakistan’s revival of international cricket at home, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) lynchpin, Najam Sethi, is now planning to host a multilateral tournament named Emerging Asia Cup.

It was revealed in a recent briefing at Lahore that Sethi is expecting Bangladesh to participate in the tournament which would include India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

It was only one month back when the World XI side visited the Gadaffi Stadium at Lahore for a 3-match T20I series. Following the series which the men in green by 2-1, they hosted Sri Lanka for the final match of the T20I series successfully.

However, few key members of the Sri Lankan squad namely, Niroshan Dickwella, Upul Tharanga, Dinesh Chandimal and many others including Head Coach Nic Pothas opted to pull out of the Lahore-leg of the tour.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been relentlessly trying to convince other boards to tour to the country since the infamous attacks on the Sri Lankan players’ team bus eight years back in 2009.

Participation from Bangladesh still unsure

That said, according to reports from BDcrictime, the sixth team in the Emerging Asia Cup could come through after a qualification round but it is still not certain if India and Bangladesh would agree to tour Pakistan for the contest.

The sixth team of the tournament will come through the qualifying round. In spite of PCB President’s strong claim, it is yet full uncertain whether India and Bangladesh would tour Pakistan or not.

Emerging Cup is generally consists of Under-23 cricketers although there are some national performers in the teams as well. Although anything about the Emerging Cup is yet a matter of confirmation the ice has started melting in Pakistan cricket.

After the successful arrangement of a series between World XI vs Pakistan this year, Sri Lanka national team has also played the last T20I of the recently concluded bilateral series in Lahore.