Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) newly appointed Chief Executive, Faisal Hasnain, believes that the whole country needs to be united in order to bring cricket back to the country. Faisal said that international teams hesitate to travel to Pakistan due to the country’s perception.
The 62-year old talked about why international teams are not keen on touring Pakistan during a press conference alongside PCB Chairman, Ramiz Raja in Karachi today.
Faisal said that we all need to work together to change the perception of Pakistan and urged the media personnel to play their part in doing so. He said that media is the key to changing Pakistan’s perception in the whole world and requested them to portray positive news about the country rather than reporting only negative views in order to get clicks.
PCB CEO further added that during his time as financial head with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Managing Director of Zimbabwe Cricket, he noticed that there was a negative image of Pakistan. He said that whenever there was negative news about Pakistan reported in the media, the news clippings would be posted on ICC’s notice board.
Faisal said that PCB’s first task is to change the perception and to tell the world that Pakistan is a safe place to travel where the players from different countries can enjoy the vast culture and beauty of the country.
He said that Pakistan also needs to assure the traveling players that they will not be locked inside their hotel rooms and they will be allowed to go to restaurants to enjoy local cuisine perform different activities in the country.
Ramiz Raja backed Faisal’s statement and revealed that the PCB is working with the security forces to ease some restrictions on the players and create a plan for the players to travel to and from the hotel rooms to different places. Ramiz said that PCB is working diligently to improve the security arrangements in the country.
