Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chief Executive, Wasim Khan, said that he expects England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to send their men’s and women’s teams to Pakistan according to schedule as PCB has provided the updated security situation in Pakistan.
Wasim said that Pakistan’s intelligence services have reiterated that there is no security threat to any visiting team.
“England are meeting to make a decision on whether they will tour Pakistan or not. We know what the guidance is, we know from a security perspective, there’s a clean bill of health. We certainly hope England tour. We certainly believe they should be coming and hope they will be coming, based on what the competent authority in Islamabad and the security expert is saying,” Wasim said in a virtual press conference.
Wasim added that New Zealand Cricket’s (NZC) unilateral decision to end their tour of Pakistan abruptly had harmed the image of the country, and he labeled their actions as disrespectful. Wasim said that the details of the security threat should have been shared with Pakistan as the intelligence services in the country have the right to know if there was an imminent threat.
Wasim pointed out that if there was a security threat in the region then various countries would have changed their travel advisory, as it is the proper indicator of threat levels. He said no changes in travel advisory were made by the governments of New Zealand, England, the USA, Canada, and Australia.
“In terms of what is in place, ultimately, the ECB board will make a decision. There are two elements any board looks at. One is the advisory a government has for citizens of their nation going to any country. Secondly, it’s around the security provision that is put in place directly for the team. Both of those angles, we’ve been told there’s a clean bill of health, and there’s confidence on both sides. But, ultimately, the decision is the ECB board’s, and we’ll have to wait and see,” Wasim concluded.
