West Indies to play T20I series in Pakistan, confirms PCB

The Independence Cup between Pakistan and the World XI side has been lauded richly by fans as well as cricketers all over the world and the proceedings of the series started off on a sweet note for the hosts as they won the first match on Tuesday. The tournament seems to have opened the floodgates of cricketing action in the nation, as the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Najam Sethi recently confirmed that West Indies would be touring the country in November.

The tour will comprise 3 T20Is and the itinerary would be made public soon, stated Sethi on a television channel program on Tuesday night. International cricket had to take a backseat in Pakistan as no major Test playing nation has toured the nation since 2009 for security concerns. This occurred in the aftermath of the horrific militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009 where 7 people were left dead and 8 Lankan players and support staff were injured.

The World XI tour, featuring top notch players like Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, George Bailey and Darren Sammy ended the drought of cricketing events in the nation as the Independence Cup kicked off on Tuesday at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

PCB Chief confirms Windies and Sri Lanka tours

Speaking about the upcoming cricketing action in the Pakistan, Sethi said, “The agreement with the West Indies Cricket Board has been finalised and done and they have confirmed they will come to Lahore in November to play three T20 Internationals.” He further affirmed that Sri Lanka will be playing a lone T20 international on October 29 in Lahore. “I am still trying to convince Sri Lanka to play at least two matches in the coming series in Lahore,” he said.

Sethi opined that the Windies tour would be instrumental in re-launching PCB’s negotiations with other cricket playing nations, as it would mark a proper, ICC approved bilateral series in Pakistan. He also expressed hopes of collaborating with Cricket South Africa which may subsequently see the full South African team come to Pakistan for a short bilateral series sometime next year.

With the matches currently being held at Lahore amidst tight security, Sethi said, “Right now, we are compelled to play only in Lahore but obviously with time we will schedule matches at other Test venues like Karachi, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan. Right now, we can’t take any risks. We know the security plans being enforced for the World XI matches are causing some inconvenience to the people. As we host more foreign teams we will have relaxations but without compromising on the security for visiting teams or our players.”