Pakistan cricket team will continue to play their home international cricket games in United Arab Emirates (UAE) at reduced costs, confirmed by both cricket boards PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) and ECB (Emirates Cricket Board) on Wednesday (June 27).
Both boards released a joint statement that said, “The PCB and ECB (Emirates Cricket Board) have held fruitful discussions on matters of mutual interest. The ECB has committed to a significant reduction of the costs to Pakistan Cricket Board of holding tournaments with immediate effect.”
After the 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan’s cricket in their home nation has hugely suffered. While their home venue shifted in UAE, Pakistan had zero international matches until 2015. In May 2015, Zimbabwe had the successful tour in Pakistan where they had played 3 ODIs and 2 T20Is.
In the last year, Pakistan organized total four more international matches (three T20Is against World XI and one T20I against Sri Lanka). Since 2009, all of those international matches had been organized at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.
In early April this year, Pakistan has also successfully organized the three-match T20I series against Windies. All those three matches were played at National Stadium, Karachi.
However, the situation hasn’t developed hugely in the country as the big cricketing members are not showing their interests yet to travel in Pakistan.
The new announcement also means that the next editions of Pakistan Super League (PSL) will be played in UAE, hosting the tournaments since the inaugural edition in 2016. While the inaugural 2016 edition had totally played in UAE, Pakistan had hosted only the final (at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore) in 2017 PSL. During the latest edition in 2018, Pakistan successfully hosted a total of three games, Eliminator (at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore), Qualifier 2 (at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore) and the final (at National Stadium, Karachi).
Though PSL body has shown interest to organize more games in Pakistan, still UAE is the main center by hosting most of the matches.
The ECB has also confirmed that they will not host any other leagues during the PSL or any series related with Pakistan in UAE. While the country’s cricket is growing, UAE has a busy schedule to organize cricket as the inaugural edition of Afghanistan Premier League has been also scheduled in this country that will be kicked-off in October this year.
