The Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland, Warren Deutrom, has expressed interest in an Irish tour of Pakistan after being impressed with the smooth running of the latest series in Sri Lanka.
Since the attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009, the Pakistani men’s team has held almost all matches in the United Arab Emirates. However, the country has recently begun to regularly host international matches with limited playing time. Sri Lanka recently agreed to travel to Pakistan for three one-day internationals and three 2020 internationals, which were completed on 9 October.
“To experience the hospitality of Pakistan is a great thing.”
— ICC (@ICC) October 10, 2019
Sri Lanka coach Rumesh Ratnayake is pleased with the reception 🇱🇰 received in 🇵🇰 and hopes other countries will follow their lead.https://t.co/p4EsYUDZms
After sustained rain forced the first game to end, Pakistan beat the ODI series 2-0, while Sri Lanka struggled to beat the T20Is 3-0. Throughout the tour, the Sri Lankan contingent received the highest level of safety and the series was completed without difficulty.
Sri Lanka interim coach Rumesh Ratnayake was also impressed with the experience and believes that Pakistani hospitality will encourage other countries to visit these coasts in the future.
“They did a great job to keep us here and the safety was impeccable, I enjoyed every moment of it, although some of us had doubts, the doubt has now been dispelled, so I’d like to thank you all for that You did it, “he said after completing the tour.
On the basis of similar views, Deutrom wants Ireland to make its contribution to the regularization of international cricket in Pakistan. He and Tom Harrison, the England and Wales Cricket Board, visited Pakistan during the T20I series in Lahore for an introduction to security arrangements.
“We want to play our part in getting international cricket back on track in Pakistan,” said Deutrom in PCB’s podcast. “Only on a very human level, until you see it with yourself, come up with a series of ideas or prejudices, and I think that this visit, generously conducted by the invitation of the Pakistan Cricket Board, would begin to promote these ideas to change.
“What we saw in Islamabad and Lahore is the extraordinary length cricket authorities, security agencies, government, and police have gone through, and all of them have worked incredibly close together to build that trust.”
While no special date has yet been set for the Ireland tour, as there is no time slot for the next eight months, Deutrom believes that they could be invited to play within a year or two.
“We have a board meeting by the end of this month, and we want to share with the board what we’ve seen and what remarkable steps have been taken to create that level of trust in other cricket boards around the world.
“When we receive an invitation, we will go through the applications and take them very seriously, there is no date set, but I would not be surprised if this date or this end-of-year invitation were received. I do not know if next or next I think we should take that very seriously. “
