KARACHI, (Reuters) – A world XI will play two Twenty20 cricket matches in Pakistan this week in a development organisers hope will help to convince foreign teams to tour the country.
“We hope that when the world XI that includes several former test and international players plays in Pakistan it will send out a positive signal to the outside world,” chief organiser Mohammad Ali Shah told a news conference yesterday.
International cricket has been suspended in Pakistan since March 2009 when militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, killing six Pakistani policemen and a van driver and wounding five of the visiting players.
No test team has toured Pakistan since then while the International Cricket Council (ICC) moved 2011 World Cup matches away from Pakistan due to security concerns. “The world XI will play against a Pakistan stars XI on Saturday and Sunday,” Shah said.
Former Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, West Indians Ricardo Powell, Steven Taylor, Jermaine Charles Lawson and Adam Sanford and South Africans Justin Kemp, Loots Bosman, Mthandeki Tschabalala, Andre Nel, Andre Johann Seymore and Nantie Hayward had agreed to play for the visiting side.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) welcomed the move but said in a media release that security would be the responsibility of the organisers.
