It was not long ago that New Zealand and England cancelled tours to Pakistan. Everything looked fishy, as New Zealanders landed in Pakistan but decided to pull out of the tour out of the blue. Englanders’ announcement regarding cancellation of the tour followed much to the disappointment of millions of cricket fans in Pakistan. Yet, it seems like a thing from the days of yore. Pakistan was set to play cricket with these two nations just before the start of the ICC Twenty20 International World Cup but to its dismay, it was left with no opportunities to practice its skills before the mega event.
With Pakistan being left in the lurch, as New Zealand and England abrasively cancelled their tours, the then newly appointed PCB chief advised the players to “vent their frustrations in the field” and to focus on their performance as playing good cricket (was the only hope) would compel their contemporaries to visit Pakistan. With Pakistan’s extraordinary performance since the start of the event, and the fact that it broke numerous world records during the ‘Super 12’ stage of the tournament with an unbeaten record, Pakistan cricket has seriously stepped up in the eyes of the western bloc, and they consider the country indispensable to cricket.
Consequently, on Monday, Cricket Australia confirmed that their team will tour Pakistan at the start of the next year for three Tests, three One Day Internationals, and a Twenty20 International. This will be the first time the Australian team plays in Pakistan since 1998.
Later that day, we also witnessed the manifestation of Raja’s words as the CEO of the England Cricket Board, Tom Harrison, scheduled a meeting with the PCB Chairman in an attempt to repair damaged relations because they pulled out of their scheduled tour just as the two teams were set to kick off their first match in September this year.
There had been fears that Australia may follow suit as England and New Zealand cancelled on Pakistan amid rising security concerns. However, the experience and expertise of Raja and his historic words are echoed through the recent advancements in the cricketing world.
Fortunately, we see that cricket is returning to this great and resilient nation after a long decade of depression. And now we see that the green caps come into the field with a mentality of warriors and match winners, something that we yearned for since Pakistan was shunned from international cricket in 2009.
