Hosting the entire season of Pakistan Super League (PSL) this year in its home country, and not at any neutral venue like UAE, will help Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) bid more aggressively to try and host one of the major ICC world events in the next rights cycle from 2023-31, believes PCB chairman Ehsan Mani.
The ICC is currently in process of finalising a Future Tours Programme for the eight-year period beyond the ongoing cycle; where if the proposal to schedule one major event annually goes through, Pakistan, with regained confidence over its security arrangements, will definitely be one of the interested parties.
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"We want to show to the ICC and to other countries that we are capable of hosting an ICC event and we will aggressively bid for that," AP quoted Mani as saying before the start of PSL 2020 on February 20 in Karachi where title holders Quetta Gladiators will take on two-time champions Islamabad United in the opening game of the tournament.
Pakistan has previously co-hosted the 50-over World Cups in 1987 and 1996 "but this (PSL) is the largest cricketing event hosted by us," Mani said, talking up the significance of hosting an event such large scale in these times.
While PSL has previously had its knock-out games played in Pakistan, this will be the very first time since the tournament's inception in 2016 that the entire competition will be played at home. Lahore will host 14 matches, including two play-offs and the tournament final on March 22, with the rest of the games scheduled in Karachi (9 games), Rawalpindi (8) and Multan (3), respectively.
As many as 36 overseas players will be representing the six franchises.
"The amount of interest (in the PSL) has been incredible around the world,” Mani said. “Over 450 foreign players registered to be considered for the event and in the end 36 have been chosen by six franchises. This reflects the confidence of foreign players to come and play in Pakistan."
Pakistan cricket suffered badly because of the 2009 Lahore terrorist attack where a travelling Sri Lankan team bus was targetted; the country had to let-go of co-hosting rights of the 2011 World Cup as it became a no-go zone for teams because of security concerns back in those days.
But things have been gradually improving since 2015 when Pakistan hosted Zimbabwe for a limited-overs series in Lahore and got more teams to visit the nation thereafter, famously an ICC World XI for a T20I series, with greater security measures being put in place.
The biggest triumph of the Mani-led PCB regime was, of course, hosting Sri Lanka for a Test series in December, its first at home since those terror attacks; the country has also hosted Bangladesh for a Test in Rawalpindi in February.
(Inputs from AP)
