The International Cricket Council wants to end Pakistan’s sporting isolation following a terror attack on the Sri Lanka team by sending an invitational World XI to play there.
The ICC said on Tuesday it hopes fixtures can be played in Pakistan by the end of 2011, but it was still assessing the security situation and the availability of players.
“World cricket must go back and play in Pakistan,” said Giles Clarke, who heads the task force set up by the ICC in 2009 to help Pakistan fulfill its international cricket commitments.
But Clarke, unveiling the plans in the September issue of The Wisden Cricketer magazine, wrote that it was still too early for a national team to return to Pakistan.
“The security challenges are enormous but we cannot allow the terrorists to win,” Clarke said. “With determination and courage an ICC World XI in due course will go and play against Pakistan in her great cities and there will be a marvellous atmosphere.”
Pakistan captain Salman Butt said home matches against a team of world-class players would be warmly welcomed by his country’s cricket fans.
“If all the players can come and do this favour for Pakistan cricket, I think it would be wonderful,” Butt said on Tuesday at The Oval while preparing for the third test against England.
“The people of Pakistan are cricket lovers and they have their heroes, not only from Pakistan cricket but from around the world.”
An all star team could be more easily protected because it would undertake fewer matches in fewer venues than a national team.
Cricket tours of Pakistan were abandoned after the Sri Lanka team’s convoy was attacked by gunmen en route to a test at Lahore on March 9 last year. Six police officers and a van driver were killed, and Sri Lanka players and officials were injured.
The ICC also removed Pakistan as one of the four planned hosts for the 2011 World Cup, which will be staged in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka starting in February.
Pakistan has staged its scheduled home series at neutral venues in the United Arab Emirates and England in the interim, but Clarke said it was important to take the game back to the Pakistan people.
“Cricket cannot abandon a nation with such a magnificent history in the game, such wonderful players and such enthusiastic and knowledgeable supporters,” Clarke wrote. “It will be an historic moment when international cricket resumes in Pakistan and the first ICC team walks out.”
Clarke said the Pakistan Cricket Board’s income had dropped by two-thirds since the attack, describing it as “a brutal impact that few enterprises could survive.”
Butt said being unable to host matches has had a serious impact on Pakistan’s performances on the pitch, too.
“A higher percentage of players and teams have better records at home. This is one advantage Pakistan does not have any longer and everybody should have this in his mind when they talk about Pakistan not performing,” Butt said.
“We are the only team in the world always playing away from home in foreign and difficult conditions, with an inexperienced team.”
In a 120-page report sent to the ICC, a high-ranking judge who reviewed the attack for the Pakistan government heavily criticized senior police for being ill-prepared and poorly equipped at the time of the attack.
