The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is currently negotiating with its Sri Lankan counterpart to host two friendly matches that will be part of the ICC Test Championship program from 50 July this year.
In a contact with Dawn, a PCB official on Thursday confirmed that the negotiations between the PCB and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on the proposed test battles are under way, but nothing has yet been finalized.
Pakistan has not hosted any nation for a security test match after a frightening terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team on March 3, 2009 in Lahore, which was undergoing a test match.
Since then, PCB has successfully hosted foreign teams for bilateral homecare in the neutral locations of the United Arab Emirates. However, holding the home series in the United Arab Emirates costs the circuit board a lot, and for that reason the board has been trying for a long time to bring foreign teams to Pakistan for international matches.
After hosting Zimbabwe (ODI and T20 International Series in Lahore, 2015), the World XI team was made up of players from various test game countries (3-Match-T20 International series in Lahore, 2017), Sri Lanka (a T20 International in Lahore, 2017) and West Indies (three games of the T20 International series in Karachi, 2018), the circuit board has gradually moved toward the full restoration of international cricket in the country.
In addition, several Pakistan Pakistan Super League T20 matches have been played in Pakistan since 2017 with prominent Pakistani and foreign cricket players after the PCB hosted the 2016 inaugural 2016 edition in the United Arab Emirates.
The 2017 PSL Final was hosted by Lahore. In 2018, two playoffs were played in Lahore, while the final took place in Karachi. In the 2019 edition, Karachi hosted up to eight PSL matches, including the final.
With all the above-mentioned international games and PSL games running smoothly without incident, the efforts of PCB have raised hopes of high-level international cricket, including friendly matches, returning to Pakistan.
Before the recent ODI series with five games between Pakistan and Australia in the United Arab Emirates, PCB tried to convince Cricket Australia to play some games in Pakistan, an offer that CA rejected.
