Future of international cricket in Pakistan

Perhaps, Pakistan is destined to suffer blackouts—-be it electricity blackout, sugar blackout or cricket blackout.  It has been two years and eight months since any international cricket match was held on the green soil. As life is dearer to all than anything
else in the world, no foreign cricketer is ready to gamble with his life by coming and playing in Pakistan where terrorism, extremist and militancy are awash.

It was a bright sunny morning of 3 March, 2009. Team Sri Lanka were on their way to Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore for Day 3 play of the 2^nd Test match. As they were about to cross the Liberty Market roundabout, at least 12 armed terrorist assailed them
with heavy guns and hand grenades. In a bloody show of half an hour, 8 people including some Pakistani security personnel were killed and many other got injured. Six members of the visiting squad suffered severe wounds.

This was the heyday which precipitated the end of international cricket in Pakistan. The Lankan Lions, after reaching their homeland, pledged not to go to the terror-hit state again on any cost. The gruesome incident spread a shock wave across the global
cricket comity, and rang alarm bells in the corridors of International Cricket Council (ICC) which strictly barred any overseas team to visit Pakistan along with creating a special Task Force to review the security situation in the Asian nation.

Pakistan cricket authorities had nothing to justify the murderous attack and convince the international cricketers to come and play on their territory. There remained hell silence on the issue for two years. The cricket grounds of Pakistan got deserted.
The fans lost all hopes of watching cricket again on their home venues.

The sun of 30 March, 2011 rose with rays of hope for Pakistan. On that day, the two archrivals, India and Pakistan, met at Mohali in the super duper semi-final match of ICC World Cup. Along with warming up the sentiments of the cricket lovers of the two
nations, the high-voltage clash kick started the ‘Cricket Diplomacy’.

In the backdrop of the game, the political and cricketing authorities of both the neighbouring countries had some bilateral meetings in a bid to renew the sports ties. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent written requests to its Indian counterpart, urging it
to send Team India to break the jinx. After some deliberations, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused point blank.

Then, the PCB turned towards Sri Lanka as it believed that the last ones would become the first ones to visit Pakistan. As a mark of neighbourhood and friendship, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) promised to revive international cricket in the country. However,
the Lankan Lions refused to land on the soil where they had a narrow escape two years back.

In the meanwhile, the PCB Chairman was changed. Zaka Ashraf, after taking baton from Ijaz Butt, pledged with the nation that he would move between heavens and earth to end Pakistan’s cricket draught. On war footings, the new boss paid visits to the ICC,
the SLC, the BCCI and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). All refused again, but the BCB showed an olive branch.

Then, Ashraf came to the local media and announced that the public will have to wait long for the revival of the hosting status as the scenario was not favourable yet.

Despite all these odds, Zaka is still vigilant to accomplish his cherished task. He still vows that he will not be at peace unless he succeeds in brining any foreign team to Pakistan. His efforts are going on with heat and spirit. Let us see how far he goes
and what destiny he meets in pursuit of his goal.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=8754

Posted by Sharjeel Ahmad on Jan 10 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry