Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Thursday unveiled the logo for the upcoming World XI series, dubbed the ‘Independence Cup 2017’. Addressing a press conference here, PCB chairman Najam Sethi said the purpose of the World XI series was to project a positive image of Pakistan around the world. The series potentially begins, for the first time in nine years, something resembling a home season in Pakistan, which has had monumental difficulty hosting international cricket since the terror attack in 2009 on a Sri Lanka team bus that injured several cricketers.

Faf du Plessis has been named captain of the World XI squad who will travel to Pakistan to play three T20Is. He will be joined by four South African team-mates in party that includes representatives from seven nations. Hashim Amla, Morne Morkel, David Miller and Imran Tahir are the other South Africa players in the 14-member squad. Australia provide three players – George Bailey, Ben Cutting and wicketkeeper Tim Paine – and West Indies’ two include Darren Sammy, who went for the Pakistan Super League earlier this year. There’s one player each from England, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The three-T20 series, which has international status, begins on September 12, with the next two T20s to be played on September 13 and 15. Former Zimbabwe captain and England coach Andy Flower has been named as the coach of the World XI side.

“It is the collective responsibility of the government and the masses to make the tour of the star studded XI a big success in the coming days,” he added. Also present on the occasion were officials of the PCB and the sponsors of the event. “If we successfully host the World XI then Sri Lanka and West Indies teams will also be visiting Pakistan in coming months, and by that way we will see the return of international cricket to Pakistan.” He said once international cricket returns to Pakistan, the PCB would start holding discussions with the other cricket boards regarding the visit of their respective teams to Pakistan in due course of time. “The task of having World XI in Pakistan was very challenging. We overcome a number of hurdles to satisfy the ICC-hired security team. There were a lot of demands of Word XI players, we sorted out problems related to foreign cricketers and their respective boards,” Sethi maintained.

Media needs to play its role: “Everyone, especially the media, needs to play their part in making this series a success for our own national interest,” Sethi added. He said the media held a lot of power. “But often in the rush to produce breaking news you are not careful and misreport things, turning it into fake news,” cautioning the media to report responsibly as “whatever our media puts out there will be quoted by the international media.” Sethi said the media had a grip over the hearts and minds of the nation. “Whatever you say, the people believe to be true, so report facts correctly.”

Sethi also stressed that ‘irresponsible reporting’ may affect Sri Lanka’s decision to visit Pakistan for a T20 match and the subsequent arrival of West Indies for a three-match series next month. “Both teams’ arrival is subject to the success of this tournament,” Sethi explained. “International players visiting the country have requested that they be sanitized. We have agreed to this. However, journalists wishing to get in touch with these players should get in touch with us and we will make it happen instead of trying to speak to them directly. However, some players have also said that they do not want to speak to the media at all, and their wishes will be respected as well.”

PCB’s plan for bringing cricket to Karachi: While discussing ‘the heartburn’ being felt in Karachi due to no matches being played there, Sethi said: “I know people are not happy that there are no matches being played in Karachi, especially after the improved security situation. However the international community needs more reassurance and we have a plan for that. We will take the international security team assessing the security situation in Lahore to Karachi as well and ask for their recommendations. After this, with the Sindh Chief Minister’s cooperation, we will work on a security plan for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and conduct four of those matches in Karachi. Once we have successfully conducted PSL matches in Karachi, we will be in the position to convince international teams to play in Karachi. At most, it will just be a two-year struggle for us, after which we will be able to host international tournaments as regularly as any other cricketing nation,” he said.

To a question, he said the PCB was selling the tickets of the Independence Cup in a fair manner as this event was not a profit-earning venture and the PCB wanted to minimize its losses. “It will be very difficult to answer and satisfy the audit people and PCB Governing Council in case huge losses are suffered in the three-match series.” Sethi expressed his gratitude to the sponsors for extending support to the PCB and said efforts were underway to seek sponsorship for the top four regions of the PCB to bring improvement in domestic cricket.

Published in Daily Times, September 8^th 2017.