The Pakistan Television (PTV) has lost millions of rupees due to the cancelation of New Zealand and England tours to Pakistan, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Fawad Chaudhry has revealed.
Taking to Twitter, the Information Minister penned that PTV is mulling over taking legal action against New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to recover the losses.
He added that a certain international lobby is actively engaged against Pakistan, stating that the detractors will never succeed and their misconception will be cleared soon.
نیوزی لینڈ اور انگلینڈ کےدوروں کی منسوخی سے PTV کو کروڑوں روپے کا نقصان ہوا دونوں بورڈز کے خلاف قانونی کاروائ کیلئے وکلاء سےمشورہ کریںنگے، پاکستان کیخلاف ایک مخصوص بین القوامی لابی مصروف عمل ہے لیکن ہمیں جھکانے کی خواہش رکھنےوالے کبھی کامیاب نہیں ہوں گے یہ غلط فہمی جلد دور کر لیں
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 21, 2021
The statement from the Information Minister comes a day after the ECB announced to withdraw from the tour of Pakistan following NZC’s decision to abruptly pull out of its tour of the country.
Note that it was the first New Zealand tour to Pakistan since 2003 and it would have been England’s first tour to Pakistan since 2004.
The cancelation of New Zealand and England tours to Pakistan has disappointed cricket fans who were eagerly waiting for both series.
The international cricket community abandoned Pakistan after the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009. Since then, Pakistan has struggled to convince elite international cricket teams to tour the country.
After the 2009 incident, Pakistan played all of its home series in the UAE without the traditional fan support. PCB earned little revenue by organizing the home series offshores as well.
Although Test cricket returned to the country when Sri Lanka toured in 2019, PCB wanted to play home series against England, Australia, and New Zealand in order to show the cricketing world that Pakistan is a safe country.
However, the recent back-to-back setbacks in the form of cancelation of New Zealand and England tours have wasted all of PCB’s hard work in recent years and Pakistan is once again facing the prospect of being abandoned by the international cricketing community.
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