Cricbeat

The Pakistan Cricket Board has not given up hope of reviving international cricket at home and have again officially invited Sri Lanka to tour Pakistan later this year for the future tours program series. Sri Lanka are due to play three tests, five one-day internationals and a T20 match as part of the FTP series that Pakistan will host.

But the Sri Lankans who were targeted by militants on their last tour in March, 2009 in Lahore have already said they would prefer to play the series at neutral venues.

"The government wants this (series to be held in Pakistan)," a senior PCB official was quoted as saying on Saturday. "We have asked SLC again to let us have their views on the issue." The prospect of the series actually taking place in Pakistan remains a distant one. So far the government has only passed on verbal instructions to the PCB, who in turn have written to SLC. 

As of Saturday, when a SLC official was asked about the development or whether the board had been approached, he said: "Not to my knowledge."

Most of Pakistan’s major cities, where such a series is likely to be played – have been targeted fairly recently by terrorist attacks, within the last year in the cases of Lahore and Karachi. 

Afghanistan will actually become the first international team to play in Pakistan next week when they take on Pakistan ‘A’ in three 50-over games. Interestingly enough, one of the games was arranged for Abbottabad, but after the meeting between Ijaz and Rehman the venue was switched to Islamabad.