Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) president Kumar Sangakkara insisted that England and/or Australia must tour Pakistan in order to bring international cricket back regularly to the Asian country.
Top teams have shunned Pakistan since the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lanka team, which included Sangakkara, in Lahore in which six players were injured and eight Pakistanis, including six policemen, were killed.
However, Sangakkara returned to Pakistan as part of the MCC team in February this year. But still, the top teams have not toured Pakistan despite the likes of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh playing all formats against the Green Army.
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“It doesn’t matter an Asian side going there or a secondary side in terms of world prominence when it comes to having security measures in place,” Sangakkara told The Cricket Show on Sky Sports Cricket.
“I think it’s important that England or Australia, even South Africa, make up their minds to actually tour when security is assured and they have those discussions; the MCC tour will be a precursor to that,” he added.
Pakistan played its first Test match on home soil since 2009 when they hosted Sri Lanka in Karachi in December 2019. Bangladesh also played a test match in Rawalpindi in February.
“I don’t think you are ever going to see in the near future a five-test match series coupled with a one-day series played back-to-back. I think it will be more a case of you play two test matches, you take a break, you go back and play three one-dayers,” Sangakkara, who has more than 28,000 international runs, said.
“It’s not exactly the right time for extended tours, but I’m sure that with the right communication and the measures in place that players can go back and play some great quality cricket, have a great time and bring cricket back to Pakistan,” he signed off.
Pakistan has offered to host global flagship tournaments after the governing International Cricket Council invited expression of interest for events in the 2023-31 cycle.
(Reuters inputs)
