Cricket Australia is keeping a tight eye on the security situation in Peshawar following a terrorist suicide bomb assault that murdered more than 50 worshippers earlier today.
The administration of the visiting team is in direct touch with the Department of Foreign Affairs. However, there is currently no evidence that the terror attack will have any impact on Australia’s first visit to Pakistan since 1998.
Cricket Australia has dispatched a star-studded visiting group that has been granted ‘head-of-state level’ security by Pakistan, and the tour is set to go through as planned.
Peshawar is about two hours’ drive from Rawalpindi, where Australia will play Pakistan in the opening of a three-match Test series.
For the Rawalpindi Test, the visitors are staying in Islamabad. The second and third Test matches will be held at Karachi and Lahore, respectively.
They’ll play three one-day internationals in Islamabad and a one-off T20I in Rawalpindi before returning to Islamabad for a three-match ODI series. This time, the Kangaroos will not visit Peshawar.
Both teams had played the second match of the three-match Test series in Peshawar when Australia had toured Pakistan 24 years earlier, with Mark Taylor scoring a historic 334 not out. Despite the fact that the match was a draw, Australia won the series 1-0.
After what happened in Peshawar, everyone in the national cricketing establishment, especially the supporters, is worried and hopeful that the historic Australian trip would go on as planned.
Pakistani cricket supporters are not prepared to go through another dark phase, similar to the one that began in 2009 with the attack on the Sri Lankan team bus, which effectively shut down international cricket in Pakistan for several years.
Certainly, the Pakistan Cricket Board and Cricket Australia have put in a lot of effort to make the visit possible, and they must continue to work together to ensure the historic tour is not derailed by the terrible occurrence.
To read our blog on “Pakistan will officially launch a Women’s Cricket League similar to the PSL next year,” click here.
