Australia and England teams will visit Pakistan, Eshan Mani
By Marium Bibi
RAWALPINDI (December 12, 2019):-Chairman, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Eshan Mani hoped that Australia and England would visit Pakistan for a full cricket in next two years while Bangladesh would play two Test and three T20 matches in January and February 2010.
On Thursday, he was talking to sports journalists at the media center of Pindi Cricket Stadium and further added, “We are talking to Australia Cricket Board and England Cricket Board about their upcoming tours, which will be taken place at the different cricket venues of Pakistan. My stance is very simple and clear. We consider Pakistan is a safe country for the international cricket matches. If any board of any country denies, it should prove this thing that why they do not want to come here, why we should run behind anyone. Chief Executive has visited here, in Pakistan with a director and now he has gone back and also chief executive of Australian and Ireland board came to Pakistan for a visit, “he added.
“We will play a Test match with Bangladesh in the same city, very soon. Bangladeshi players will come to Pakistan for the series in January. There will be held 8 matches. It is our first step, there will be 6 venues and every team will have its own home. Peshawar will be one of these venues. According to the ICC Program, England will come to Pakistan in 2020\21 and Australia will come in 2022, “he said.
To a question, Mani said, “It is the responsibility of selectors to pick up good players and at the end of PCB, we observe the performance of selectors not the players. People misunderstood that only Misbah ul Haq selects the players, in fact PCB have 7 selectors, who are retired cricketers. Retired Test cricketers are with Misbah Ul Haq, who decides that which players should be selected. Other test selector’s responsibility was to look after the domestic cricket when the team was playing in Australia and their assessment was that Shanwari and Fawad should be selected for the match, “he maintained.
A question regarding the international cricket stadium Islamabad, head of the PCB said that it was the government responsibility to build venues not of board. “Pakistan is the only country where we are looking after 8 stadiums, so, should I spent money on stadium or cricket, because we do not have unlimited resources. Our responsibility is to work on cricket. We have a girl’s cricket section in Rawalpindi Stadium and Karachi academy is also dedicated to the girls. National cricket team matches are also expected here. Like, we are playing with England women team in Malaysia, if England team came first then their women has came here, but they wanted that first our men’s team should have come then they will come, which I can understand, “he concluded.
