PCB’s efforts to host Sri Lanka have highly impressed Warren Deutrom, the chief executive of Cricket Ireland. After touring Pakistan to observe the arrangements for the series, he was hopeful of a tour of Ireland in the not too distant future.
“First of all, we have been treated fabulously well,” Deutrom said in the PCB’s podcast. “The courtesy, the generosity, the hospitality, the warmth, the love of cricket is plainly obvious for anyone to see. Cricket Ireland is now a Test nation and we certainly feel it is important that we play our part in being a mature and grown-up member of the cricket family. We want to play our part in assisting getting international cricket back in Pakistan.”
Cricket calendar is full for the next eight months, however, the work to host Ireland could begin soon. Beside Warren Deutrom, Tom Harrison, the England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive, attended the T20I series against Sri Lanka. Both had the chance to see the processes put in place for the security of the players.
“To be honest, and just at a very human level, until you see it yourself, you come with a set of conceptions or preconceptions,” Deutrom said, “And I think this visit, which was generously made at the invitation of the Pakistan Cricket Board, would begin to change those perceptions. What we saw in Islamabad and Lahore is the extraordinary lengths to which the cricket authorities, the security authorities, the government and police, everyone has been working incredibly closely together to building that confidence,” he said.
“It begins to build a sense of ‘okay, well, what are the reasons now to say why wouldn’t we come if we have all these sensitive comforts provided to us’? So, it is the beginning, I believe, of a conversation.
“We have a board meeting at the end of this month and would like to convey to the board what we have seen and the remarkable steps that have been taken to instill that level of confidence in other cricket boards around the world. We will do what we have always done, engage with our governments and insurers, and talk to our players. We will speak with the other boards that have been here in the past, obviously Sri Lanka Cricket, and then, we need to wait for an invitation.
When we receive an invitation, we will go through the motions and will take it extremely seriously. There is no date set. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if that date or if that invitation was received by the end of the year for a tour taking place, perhaps next year, maybe the year after, I don’t know. I think that’s something we should take extremely seriously.”
PCB is planning to host test matches against Sri Lanka at home in December. Sri Lanka’s coach Rumesh Ratnayake earlier stated that the doubts have now subsided and he would be happy to tour Pakistan for the test series.
