SLC denies Pakistan tour
View(s):Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) President Shammi Silva denied any talks of playing Test cricket in Paksitan. Responding to the Sunday Times on a possible Sri Lanka Test tour to Pakistan, later in July, he stated ‘no such talks’ had taken place between the cricket boards of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as reported by international media.
According to a report published in a Pakistan English Daily newspaper, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is currently in negotiations with the SLC, to host a two-match Test series, part of the ICC Test Championship Programme, beginning from July, soon after the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Reports say that a top PCB official has confirmed that negotiations are on between Pakistan and Sri Lanka cricket boards on the proposed Test series, ‘but nothing was final as yet’.
“We have not been contacted by any PCB official and no such discussion ever took place. If there are such reports claiming that negotiations are taking place or took place, they are baseless and untrue,” Silva stated.
Pakistan have failed to attract any international cricket team to tour for the past decade, owing to security-related issues, following the horrible terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team, which was playing a Test match, in Lahore on March 3, 2009.
Pakistan’s hosting venue ever since has been neutral venues of the United Arab Emirates, where the PCB has been successful in hosting foreign teams for bilateral series. With the high cost involved in hosting matches in the UAE, the PCB has been attempting to promote Pakistan again, but have failed to attract many of their counterparts.
Pakistan hosted Zimbabwe in a ODI and T20 International series in Lahore in 2015, a World XI team comprising players from different Test-playing countries, which included a three-match T20 International series in Lahore and Sri Lanka for a T20 International in Lahore in 2017 and the West Indies for a three-match T20 International series in Karachi last year.