Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Ijaz Butt sought assurances on security from country's interior ministry on Thursday as it intensifies efforts to revive international cricket in the troubled country. National sides have not toured Pakistan since March 2009 when seven Sri Lankan players and their assistant coach were injured and eight Pakistanis killed after their team bus was attacked in Lahore.
Pakistan blamed the assault on the Taliban, and the national side has since been forced to play its home series at neutral venues. "We have asked the interior ministry to give us assurances on security so that we can revive international cricket in Pakistan," Butt said after his meeting with Interior Minister, Rehman Malik in Islamabad on Thursday.
Pakistan had already been a virtual no-go zone for foreign teams since the September 11, 2001 attacks, which put the nuclear-armed country on the front line of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the war against al Qaeda.
Butt said Afghanistan's cricket team, the first international team to tour Pakistan since 2009, will be given full security when they arrive to play the host's second string later this month. "We are endeavouring to revive international cricket in Pakistan and the Afghanistan series, although not a big one, will be the step towards that." "And we will put in place full security," Butt told reporters.
Butt said Pakistan is also trying to arrange a series with arch-rivals India, who have stalled bi-lateral series in the aftermath of terror attacks on Mumbai, blamed on militants across the border. "We are trying our best to arrange a series with India either in December this year or early next year," he said.
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