Sri Lanka Agrees to Play Test Series In Pakistan After 10 Years

After a decade of drought, international cricket is finally returning to Pakistan, as Sri Lanka has reportedly agreed to play a Test series in the country.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had been making efforts to bring Test cricket back, and their efforts have yielded results after receiving a positive response from Sri Lanka.

If everything goes well, the two-match Test series will be played in September-October this year and would be part of Test Championship, media reports said on Thursday.

The matches will be played in Karachi’s National Stadium and Lahore’s Qaddafi Stadium.

Reports say the management of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is also in talks with the Bangladesh cricket team, inviting them for a short series in Pakistan.

Pakistan hasn’t hosted any international Test cricket event ever since the attack on Sri Lankan team’s bus in March 2009 in Lahore. The team had to leave without completing the series, taking away hopes of hosting international cricket from the country.

Since then, Pakistan has hosted all their home series in UAE, it was only in 2017 when Pakistan got to host Sri Lanka for a three-match T20 series that the visiting side lost 0-3. The successful arrangement of this series led to a three-match series against West Indies in April 2018 as well.

PCB had tried to convince Australia to play at least two of the five ODIs of the recent series in Pakistan, but the proposal didn’t go through.