Cricket should return to Pakistan
Chairman English Cricket Board Giles Clarke has called for a return of international cricket to Pakistan with the World XI to tour the country in due course. The question however remains - can Pakistan provide adequate security to international teams if they were to play in the country.
This is something that the PCB needs to work out to ensure whether any international team to tour Pakistan can be given enough security to host a successful tournament. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 has had a very poor track record in this regard. Butt had promised to provide presidential level security to the Sri Lankan team which failed desperately short. With that misadventure, the future of cricket in Pakistan has been put in serious jeopardy.
Only time will tell if cricket will ever return to the country that has contributed immensely to the international sport. However, one thing is for sure that if cricket does not return to the country, the development of the sport will seriously be hampered. The PCB has till now suffered a loss of 17 million pounds due to the Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team leading to a ban on international cricket in Pakistan. Clarke’s suggestions come in the face of the Pakistan army conducting a successful operation against the Taliban in the tribal areas of the country, driving them away - a task that the U.S. army has not been able to do in the last 9 years. The development of sport in the country is imperative to counter the growth of terrorism. With the youth being involved in sports from an early age, the likelihood of them deviating is substantially reduced.
If cricket can be played in India which at the moment is facing a serious insurgency issue in the form of 20,000 armed Naxalites taking up resistance in what is known as the red corridor of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, then it only sounds fair to give Pakistan a chance too.
"Cricket cannot abandon a nation with such a magnificent history in the game, such wonderful players and such enthusiastic and knowledgeable supporters. It will be an historic moment when international cricket resumes in Pakistan and the first ICC team walks out," exclaimed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 who is passionate about the revival of cricket in Pakistan.
The international community along with Pakistan must help the land of the pure to overcome the major problems they have faced in the past few years owing to its involvement in the war against terror. The war is being fought on Pakistani soil which has ensured that it is not expanded to other parts of the world and the International community owes http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 a lot of help in this regard.
Unfortunately, the negative image that has been created in the minds of the western world regarding the country needs to be countered as well. This will ensure the revival of cricket in a country that is already troubled. Pakistan has also been playing an important role in the development of cricket in Asia, honing teams like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745. Keeping the contribution of Pakistan cricket to the cricketing world, it is only fair to give them a chance.
“On the ground, of course, the reality is different and first-time visitors to Pakistan are almost always surprised by the country's visible prosperity. There is far less poverty on show in Pakistan than in India, fewer beggars, and much less desperation,” observes William Dalrymple, a prize winner historian. “Little of this is reported in the western press, which prefers its stereotypes simple: India-successful; Pakistan-failure.”
However, we cannot simply allow international cricket teams to step into the country without the assurance of proper security and safety around the venues. A mechanism must be formulated to ensure that the ICC sends its teams to assess the security arrangements in the country. The team must comprise of retired officials of agencies such as Interpol, who aid the Pakistan Cricket Board and security agencies to devise a security plan that ensures the safety of the cricketing stars travelling to and fro from Pakistan. Such steps are the need of the day to assist the development of cricket in the region.
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