Ian Chappell feels time has come for teams to bite the bullet, tour Pakistan to bring cricket back there

Pakistan has only recently seen international players visiting their country and play in their stadiums. Since the ill-fated day in 2009, when terrorists attacked the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team, Pakistan has been starved of the international cricket with no board willing to send their players into the dangerous nation. However, Australian Ian Chappell feels it is time to end their dry run.

No cricketers were fatally wounded in the attack, but five players of the squad were listed as injured including Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, and his deputy Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera, and Tharanga Paranavitana.

Since then, no team has been willing to send their players to Pakistan for international matches and they was forced to play their “home” matches in the UAE. New Zealand has not toured Pakistan since 2002 and Australia have not set foot on Pakistani soil for an international series since 1998. The Pakistani crowd has not seen their team play in front of them apart from domestic matches and even the likes of Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan retired from the game without a farewell match in front of home crowds.

Ian Chappell feels its time international cricket comes back to Pakistan

Up until now, only Asia was considered it unsafe to travel due to rising terrorism in countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan and minor incidents in India as well. However, the Indian government has always provided top of the line security to the teams and no team has refused to tour India.

Pakistan has seen Zimbabwe tour the nation for a limited-overs series and a World XI comprised of several international players toured Pakistan for a three-match T20I series. The Pakistan Super League has also seen international players participate, however, only a few have actually played in Pakistan when PSL matches were hosted at home.

However former Australia cricketer Ian Chappell feels that things have changed now. With a terrorist incident happening in a secure western world nation of New Zealand recently, which saw Bangladeshi players in the vicinity of attacks, Chappell mentioned that its time for international teams to return to Pakistan.

“The way the world is at the moment, you could stop touring pretty well everywhere. I think we’ve now moved beyond just having a conversation about playing in Pakistan, someone has to bite the bullet and just do it,” was quoted saying by Saj Sadiq of PakPassion.

“Pakistan are desperate to get cricket back there as they should be. If the kids aren’t seeing their heroes on the field it’s not going to help the game in Pakistan & the feeling I get from Pakistanis is they’d go out of their way to make sure things are OK,” he further said.

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