Cricket in Pakistan is directly proportional to terrorism in Pakistan. The former world champions have not hosted a team since Sri Lanka visited Pakistan in 2009. The Sri Lankan team had to cut down their tour following an attack on their team during the Lahore test in March. Despite the attack that saw a few Sri Lankan players suffer injuries and Thilan Samaraweera taking a bullet, Sri Lankan cricket board has continued to support Pakistan and had said that they will tour Pakistan if they are given security assurances.
Talks were underway between the two boards and International Cricket Council (ICC), but following a terrorist attack on Pakistan’s Naval Base, Mehran in Karachi, Sri Lanka has decided to decline the offer from Pakistan Cricket Board for a tour citing security reasons. On Sunday Pakistan Cricket Board had said that they have sent an official invitation to the Sri Lankan Cricket board for a tour that is scheduled to be held in October this year.
Sri Lankan cricket spokesman said that the board is understandably concerned about the security situation in Pakistan, and that is the obvious reason behind the refusal by Sri Lanakan board. "We are concerned about the security and that's why we said no to them," said a Sri Lanka cricket spokesman.”
DS de Silva, the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket, also confirmed that they are not going to send their team to Pakistan. "We are not going to send our team to Pakistan, I have asked the secretary to inform the Pakistan Cricket Board today [Tuesday] of the decision”.
Pakistan has hosted all of its home series away from home in the last few years, and Sri Lankan board has also asked Pakistan to host the series on a neutral venue in Sri Lanka.The stement read, "We have instead requested Pakistan to host the matches in Colombo or at a neutral venue like Dubai or Abu Dhabi”.
International Cricket Council, the governing body of Cricket, has to also give the tour a green light, and for now ICC has also not given security clearance for the tour. "The circumstances, with regards to security, don't allow us to play matches there [Pakistan]. Even the International Cricket Council has not given us security clearance," de Silva said.
Pakistan and Sri Lankan cricket boards have always had a strong relationship. Back in 1996, when World Cup was co-hosted by Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies had decided not to tour Sri Lankadue to Tamil Tigers’ terror threat. Pakistan and India decided to put together a team comprising of players from both countries and toured Sri Lanka in order to help them out. Sri Lanka cricket said that they have not forgotten what Pakistan did for them in the hour of need and they will stand by PCB and help them out in every possible way that they can.
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