Sports / Cricket
Zimbabwe players land safely in Pakistan
19 May 2015 at 02:24hrs | Views
The Pakistan Cricket Board promised fool-proof security as the Zimbabwe cricket team landed in the country on Tuesday, becoming the first Test-playing nation to visit in six years.
Zimbabwe are set to play two T20s and three ODIs in a mini-series under high security involving 6,000 police and constant surveillance by commandos and helicopters.
The tour is a first by a full ICC member since Sri Lanka visited in 2009, when their team bus was attacked by RPG and machine-gun wielding militants, with eight people - six police and two civilians – killed and seven players wounded.
Forced to host home games in neutral venues like the United Arab Emirates, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) estimates it has lost $120 million in TV rights and extra overheads.
Even hosting Zimbabwe will cost the PCB more than $1 million, half of which is for the visitors' fees and expenses. Not much of the outlay will be recouped by sponsorships and gate proceeds.
An incident-free series is seen as crucial to Pakistan's hopes of ending its sporting isolation. But risks remain high and the massacre of 45 minority Shiites in an attack on a bus in Karachi last week nearly prompted Zimbabwe to pull out at the last minute.
Zimbabwe are set to play two T20s and three ODIs in a mini-series under high security involving 6,000 police and constant surveillance by commandos and helicopters.
The tour is a first by a full ICC member since Sri Lanka visited in 2009, when their team bus was attacked by RPG and machine-gun wielding militants, with eight people - six police and two civilians – killed and seven players wounded.
Even hosting Zimbabwe will cost the PCB more than $1 million, half of which is for the visitors' fees and expenses. Not much of the outlay will be recouped by sponsorships and gate proceeds.
An incident-free series is seen as crucial to Pakistan's hopes of ending its sporting isolation. But risks remain high and the massacre of 45 minority Shiites in an attack on a bus in Karachi last week nearly prompted Zimbabwe to pull out at the last minute.
Source - AFP
