Pakistan to land in Kolkata tomorrow morning

The Pakistan Cricket team will finally land on Indian soil in Kolkata tomorrow morning from Dubai. The delay in departure of the Pakistani side will mean that they will miss their first warm-up match against the Bengal national side.

The arrival of the Pakistan cricket team has come following a torrid episode of controversy. The PCB had initially requested the BCCI to shift the venue of the match following security concerns at Dharamsala. Thus began an ugly spat between BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and PCB chairman Shahryar Khan. A note to the home ministry from Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virdharba Singh finally prompted the ICC to make an intervention.

A three-man delegation sent to Dharamsala gave its unanimous report to the home ministry as well as the PCB. The report suggested that the security provided wouldn’t be sufficient. Thakur and the ICC finally acquiesced to the demands of the PCB as the venue was shifted to the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The timeline for the marquee fixture has also taken a hit with the tickets going on sale a day later than scheduled on the 16^th of March.

Najam Aziz Sethi, a renowned Pakistani journalist and the former Chief Minister of the Punjab province in Pakistan sent his endorsement of permission for the Pakistan cricket team to feature in the World T20 via twitter. The tweet from Sethi read, “On the basis of pukka assurances from the Home Ministry of India & CM Bengal, Chaudry Nisar has granted permission to PCB to send Team to India.”

Pakistan will take on Sri Lanka on the 14th of March in their first and only warm-up match.

Here is the tweet from the former PCB chairman

On the basis of pukka assurances from the Home Ministry of India & CM Bengal, Ch Nisar has granted permission to PCB to send Team to India.

— Najam Sethi (@najamsethi) March 11, 2016