Indo-Pak Cricket Vital

Exclusive interview/Najam Sethi, chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board

- Neeru Bhatia

For eight long years, Pakistan cricket has lived in exile, as all of Pakistan’s ‘home’ games were played in the UAE. Back home, stadiums fell into disrepair and domestic cricket suffered. Even Pakistan’s glitzy Twenty20 league was played abroad. But, 2017 changed some of this.

In March, the Pakistan Cricket Board successfully held the final of the Pakistan Super League in Lahore. After all security fears were addressed, the PCB hosted the Independence Cup—three Twenty 20 matches between Pakistan and an ICC World XI side. It was a major victory for the PCB and the ICC.

When Pakistan beat India in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy this year, the team returned home to a ticker-tape parade through Lahore— Pakistan had not celebrated a cricket win like this in a long time.

It came full circle when the Sri Lankan team arrived in Lahore for a Twenty20 international. It was only the second bilateral match to be played in Pakistan since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009. The PCB is now aiming for three PSL matches to be played at home next season.

In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, PCB chairman Najam Sethi spoke about the need to resume bilateral ties with India ahead of the proposed ICC Test Championship and ODI league in 2019. Even though the PCB has taken the legal recourse to the disputed MOU with the BCCI, India’s new proposed Future Tours Programs schedule does not include a series with Pakistan. This led to a huge outcry from its neighbours. Excerpts from the interview:

How difficult was it to get international cricket back to Pakistan?

It was very tough. Whenever we raised the issue, the question before us was that when we play our own domestic league abroad, why should international teams come home?