Pakistan Won't Play Home Matches In UAE Anymore, Claims PCB CEO

PCB now wants to see Pakistan playing their entire home Test and limited over series in Pakistan. Hence, they will try to convince other boards to start sending their teams

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been conducting its home matches in the UAE for quite a long time now. Since no Test nation visits the country since the 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus, Pakistan had no option than to conduct the series on Arab soil. But now they are likely to curb this practice. On Tuesday, PCB CEO Wasim Khan moving to UAE is “not an option anymore”, aiming to cut down on costs in light of the “improved security” situation in the country. “It costs us a lot of money hosting there,” the chief executive officer said. “Frankly speaking the security situation has improved in Pakistan and security experts have also assessed that we are in a position to manage security risks while hosting teams in the country,” Khan added. He said his board has not paid any money to Cricket Sri Lanka for its tour to Karachi and Lahore to play a series of One-day internationals and T20 matches. Khan told the media here that since the PCB now wants to see Pakistan playing their entire home Test and limited over series in Pakistan, it was trying to convince other boards to start sending their teams to the country. Since 2010, a year after militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, Pakistan have played all their major international home series in the UAE. The PCB succeeded in bringing a World XI side to Lahore in 2017 for a short T20 series and then convinced Sri Lanka to play a lone T20 in the same city. Last year they also hosted a depleted West Indies team for three T20 matches in Karachi, which came at the cost of extra money to the players and the concerned WICB by the PCB.