Pakistan hope South Africa will visit them for series in next 12 months

It’s over a decade now that Pakistan’s image as a host in international cricket has been severely battered. Ever since the horrific terror attack aimed against the Sri Lankan national team that was touring Pakistan in March 2009, not many countries have agreed to visit the nation. Pakistan did not get to host the 2011 World Cup even though it was held in the sub-continent even though there are efforts now to bring cricket back on its soil. All these years, Pakistan have played their home games in the United Arab Emirates.

As per reports, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently invited to its South African counterpart Cricket South Africa (CSA) to visit Pakistan within the next 12 months to facilitate the home board to bring more international cricket to Pakistan. The Proteas haven’t toured Pakistan since 2007 although their captain Faf du Plessis led a World XI side in Lahore a couple of years ago.

PCB Managing Director Wasim Khan extended the invitation to the CSA after the Pakistan board requested Sri Lanka Cricket to play a two-Test series in Pakistan later this year as part of the ICC Test Championship, said a report in Cricinfo.

The proposed South Africa tour of Pakistan though doesn’t feature any particular format, it is believed that Pakistan would be happy with any amount of cricket to stage international games on its soil. The Proteas were yet to confirm the tour, it was said.

Not many teams have toured Pakistan since March 2009

Very few teams have visited Pakistan since the attack of 2009. While Zimbabwe came for limited-overs cricket in 2015, the World XI visited in September 2017 while Sri Lanka and West Indies toured the country for brief series in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Earlier this year, the West Indies women’s cricket team visited Pakistan for three T20Is.

The business end of the Pakistan Super League is also being staged in Pakistan now and the organisers have hoped that the entire tournament could be held in the country instead of the UAE in the near future. Top cricketers have also spoken in favour of cricket returning to Pakistan following their will to participate in games held on their soil.