As Pakistan gets ready to host a Test match in the country after over a decade, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani on Tuesday (10 December) made it clear that the team will no longer look for neutral venues to stage home international matches.

“Our default position will remain that Pakistan is safe. We play cricket in Pakistan (and if) you want to play against Pakistan you have to come to Pakistan. The onus will be on the other teams to tell us why they can’t play in Pakistan,” he told the Associated Press.

While talking about how safe Pakistan is, Mani said, “People have a perception of Pakistan which is very, very different to the reality of what is happening on the ground in Pakistan today. The concerns that people had about Pakistan, certainly for the last year or two, were not what the ground reality is.”

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Mani then talked about top cricketing officials visiting Pakistan by saying, “Top cricketing officials from Australia, England, Ireland, and the international players’ association have visited Pakistan in the last six months. When they see the ground reality, it’s a different attitude.”

“Thus, it’s only logical that cricket comes home and I am absolutely confident that in 2021 we’ll have England and in 2022 we’ll have Australia. We’re not due to play New Zealand now till about 2023-24, but our default position is that Pakistan will play all its home matches in Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistan will be hosting Sri Lanka in a two-match home Test series with the first Test starting from Wednesday (11 December) at Pindi Cricket Stadium and second Test scheduled to commence on Thursday (19 December) at Karachi. The series is also a part of the World Test Championship.

(With PTI inputs)