Paradigm shift: Empty grounds welcome international players
FROM no-go zone to welcome zone for International cricket; yes! Pakistan achieved this milestone by sacrificing precious lives and successful operations by Pakistan’s defence forces to revive the international cricket for the cricket-loving people of Pakistan.
For more than a decade, Pakistan was deprived of international cricket and all teams denied of entering Pakistan.
3 March 2009 was the darkest day of Pakistani cricket when test team of Sri Lanka was attacked by anti-state actors near Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium.
Due to anti-Pakistan media campaign, no cricket team was willing to take risk to visit Pakistan and played against the 1992 world champions, who have played most of their “home” matches since 2009 in the United Arab Emirates.
The above commentary falls in the domain of destabilized Pakistan and it is no secret that India is behind the destabilization of Pakistan.
I quote research article titled Indian Interference in Balochistan published by Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad written by Mir Shehbaz Khetran: “An Indian serving naval officer, Kulbhushan Yadav got arrested by the law enforcement agencies of Pakistan in March 2016, when he was trying to enter Pakistan from the Saravan region, located in Balochistan, Pakistan.
India’s involvement has created serious implications for the national security and economic progress of Pakistan.Furthermore, this may eventually lead to permanent instability in the region.
The United Nations (UN) was also provided with the dossiers of the Indian patronage to the insurgent groups in Balochistan by the Government of Pakistan regarding terrorist activities being funded and monitored by the Indian Research Analysis Wing (RAW) the Indian intelligence agency.”
The paper argues that the Indian interference in the neighbouring countries, particularly in Pakistan, is causing instability.
Hence it is proved that the incident of targeting the Sri Lankan team in 2009 was probably backed by India to snatch the international cricket from Pakistan and tarnish the image of Pakistan through all available mediums.
To revive cricket in Pakistan, since 2009 every year, every Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board strived hard to reinstate the lost prestige of cricket grounds but remained unsuccessful due to anti-Pakistan media war backed by the Indian lobbies.
But it is indeed a known fact, bad days do not stay forever.International cricket knocked slowly had begun with relative pace.
The conduct of Pakistan Super Leagues held in Pakistan changed the perception of decision makers sitting in international arena and they compelled to consider Pakistan as a peaceful country.
After that Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and South Africa have all visited Pakistan and played all formats of cricket.
PCB has revamped its policies of bringing back all formats of cricket to home-grounds from the UAE since Sri Lanka played a Test series in Pakistan in 2019.
There are relatively no chance of incident or threat from the terrorists to host International cricket in Pakistan, but the real threat is Indian lobby which is adamant to create hurdles through misinformation for any international team after the announcement of their visit to Pakistan.
One such or more unpredictable scenarios surfaced which vanished the dreams of cricket lovers of Pakistan when New Zealand announced cancellation to its cricket tour of Pakistan in September 2021 that was not less than a surprise for Pakistan, because Pakistanis were anxiously waiting to see the New Zealand scheduled match in Pakistan after 18 years.
The New Zealand team quoted that it received a security alert from its government which compel them to cancel the tour.
“Following an escalation in the New Zealand government threat levels for Pakistan, and advice from NZC security advisers on the ground, it has been decided the Black Caps will not continue with the tour,” NZC said on its website.
The way cricket fans love match between England and Australia the same way they love to see between Pakistan and India.
Both series provides enough entertainment to the world.So it is testimony that if the world wants to watch cricket full of entertainment then they should support cricket in Pakistan and do not pay any heed to disinformation spread by Indian media against Pakistan.
It is high time that Australian Team arrived in Pakistan after 24 for years three Tests, three ODIs, and one T20I; they had last played in 1998.
Australian players Ben Dunk and James Faulkner said, “I’ve been fortunate enough to speak to a few of the guys who are planning on coming over here.
It’s certainly different to what we are used to at home.
But, it’s important that cricket does come back to Pakistan and you get to play at home like you play away”.
It is not only Australia but every team of the world will get the foolproof state-of-the-art security who will visit Pakistan and despite the fact Pakistanis are peace loving nation and die-hard fans of cricket.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
