Chevrons to tour Pakistan

Chevrons to tour Pakistan
Perkins-Tino Bare

The Pakistan-born Sikander Raza is set to visit his home town as Zimbabwe Cricket is set to break a 6 year jinx of no home-cricket for Pakistan as they have agreed to tour Pakistan for a five-match one-day series next month, the first Test-playing nation to visit in six years, Pakistan's cricket chief said Thursday. The tour is expected to be comprised of 3 ODI`s and 2 T20`s as one source confirmed yesterday with more details still yet to be finalised.

The tour which was organised by the Pakistan Cricket board was confirmed by their chairman Shehryar Khan as he said "Zimbabwe's final reply is that yes we want to come to Pakistan and although there are some details to be finalised we hope that they will come to play five one-day matches -- three in Lahore and two in Karachi -- next month," said Shehryar Khan in an interview, who is the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The visit would make Zimbabwe the first team from the ten Test-playing countries to tour Pakistan in six years and apart from just gaining the much needed game-time it is going to expose our players to the subtropical conditions in the middle conditions as we look set to correct a lot of wtromgs drawn from the previous World Cup.
Zimbabwe went down easily the previous World Cup not because they were not fighting hard enough but rather because the battle was more of a mental one as they were their enemies at the end of the day. The team lacked discipline and moving forward the team needs to develop a strong mental state and learn not to buckle under pressure and this tour could have not come at a better time right when the team is fresh from licking its wounds.

Foreign teams have refused to tour Pakistan over security fears since the devastating terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009 left a lot of players devastated. Speaking on the attack in a recent interview, Sri Lankan captain Dilshan said "It was a bad experience for me as a cricketer in Pakistan. As a player I don't want to go through the same experience again. I don't know the view of my team-mates but my personal view is that I don't want the same scenario again."Pakistan has had to host all its home matches in United Arab Emirates instead and our boys the Chevrons get to break this 6 year jinx as they play off in 3 ODI`s and 2 T20 I.

Apart from the much publicized violence which has already unfortunately overclouded the whole tour, this looks set to be a thrilling series as the last the two teams met, Pakistan won by 20 runs in a match played at the world cup. Also another notable thing is that both teams seem to be in a transition as Zimbabwe would be missing the services of the retired Brendan Taylor whilst Pakistan willl aslo be missing the services of the hard hitting Boom Boom Afridi and their former captain Misbah-Ul Haq who both retired after the world cup.    

The security fears are no longer that great as it is noted that the Security in Pakistan has improved since last year's military operation against the Taliban insurgency in the troubled northwest. The improved security has raised confidence levels among international teams with Kenya touring Pakistan for a five-match series in December.

Khan also said an Australian army team will visit Rawalpindi to play cricket with Pakistan's army.
Ireland, which cancelled a tour planned for last September in the wake of a terror attack on Karachi airport, might also now be willing to tour the country, he added.
However, some countries are still loathe to send their teams to Pakistan due to security concerns, Khan said. "Doors of international cricket are opening for us but top teams like India have more security requirements and they will not come at the moment," he said in an interview.


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