West Indies reject PCB's proposal to tour Pakistan

The hopes of all Pakistani cricket fans and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have come to a standstill. International cricket was expected to return to Pakistan after 7 years after the board was confident about West Indies touring the in March this year. However, as per the recent reports in the Indian Express, West Indies have officially rejected the proposal to tour Pakistan citing security concerns.

This was confirmed after the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations’ (FICA) had issued an official warning to the West Indies team citing Pakistan as unsafe. FICA had mentioned that their warning has come from “highly credible security experts” and are totally in alignment with “advice from government agencies and diplomatic missions.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board was absolutely miffed about the warning being circulated to the players and players’ associations. These circulars spoke about the “elevated risk” of travelling Pakistan. It further added that “an acceptable level of participant security and safety cannot be expected or guaranteed.” A very annoyed PCB had hit back at FICA quoting its approach and warning as “careless and cavalier”.

As per the recent reports in ESPNcricinfo, the two boards, PCB and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will continue to discuss the two T20Is to be played in Florida on March 19 and 20 though. The WICB confirmed that Pakistan will tour the Caribbean Islands for 2 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 3 Tests in March.

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Going back to the proposed West Indies Pakistan tour, the PCB was hopeful of hosting West Indies in Pakistan for two T20Is this March after the conclusion of PSL. Their hopes had bolstered after players like Andre Russell and Darren Sammy had spoken in favor of touring Pakistan. Pakistan had not any major team touring the country since the 2009 attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus. It will be worth seeing whether the PSL final takes place in Pakistan this year or not.