PCB MD Wasim Khan confident of MCC team visiting Pakistan

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) Managing Director Wasim Khan here on Wednesday said his meeting with the Marylebone Cricket Club’s (MCC) World Cricket Committee was a positive one and expressed his confidence that an MCC team would tour the country in near future.

Wasim was invited by the prestigious body earlier this week for a briefing on the current state of affairs in Pakistan cricket and how it could play a role in the full restoration of international cricket in the country.

Speaking on the flag hoisting ceremony at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Wasim said, “It was a very positive meeting with the MCC. Shane Warne, Kumar Sangakkara and Mike Getting, the chair of the committee, were present there.

They wanted me to apprise them on the current security situation in the country, along with what impact lack of international cricket has had and what can be done to restore it”.

“I am very, very confident that we will have an MCC team touring us in the near future. But, there are some matters related to security that need to be covered before they send their team. We will work very closely with the MCC to make sure the tour happens”, he said.

This went down as the first instance a PCB representative was invited by the World Cricket Committee since it came into existence in 2006. The meeting provided a major boost to the PCB’s efforts to bring back the international cricket in the country.

Pakistan have had a high-powered security delegation from Sri Lanka Cricket tour them earlier this month. The four-member delegation visited Karachi’s National Stadium and Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, the two venues which the PCB had presented their Sri Lankan counterparts as the possible hosts for the two Tests between the two countries in October this year.

High-profile delegations from Cricket Australia and English and Wales Cricket Board will also tour Pakistan in September and October respectively to observe the on-ground situation in the country, which is a result of the PCB’s arduous behind the scenes work.

After the meeting, the MCC in a media release said, “The WCC expressed its support in seeing the return of touring sides to Pakistan. Wasim Khan, the Managing Director of the Pakistan Cricket Board, was in attendance to present on cricket, the current security and political state in Pakistan. The committee discussed the conditions which would enable touring sides to return, with security analysis being a prerequisite. MCC will consider touring in the future.”

Wasim also wished a very happy independence day to the nation on behalf of the PCB.