“Sri Lanka has shown the willingness to send its team to Pakistan”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) executive committee chairman Najam Sethi has said that Sri Lanka are interested in the idea of touring Pakistan.

Zimbabwe have been the only Full Member nation to tour the country since the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked by armed militants in March 2009.

But, given that a few international players featured in this year’s Pakistan Super League (PSL) final, which was held in Lahore, Sethi believes that the country could be within touching distance of bringing international cricket back to its shores.

“Yes, Sri Lanka has shown the willingness to send its team to Pakistan on some condition which we will discuss in the next board of governors meeting before arriving at a decision in this regard,” Sethi told Dawn. “PSL has paved the way for the return of international cricket to Pakistan.

“Staging the PSL final was our first step in this regard. The tour of a World XI side to our country [expected in September this year] will be the second step while the [expected] visit of Sri Lankan team will be the third step and so on.”

It is also understood that the West Indies are set to tour Pakistan early next year.

Should Sri Lanka and the West Indies end up playing in Pakistan, Sethi is confident it will cause a chain reaction, whereby other international teams will start to visit the country.

“Organising [the] PSL final successfully in Lahore was a massive breakthrough for us and we hope that if we host World XI and Sri Lanka smoothly, more teams will tour Pakistan from next year,” he said.