Daily Times

After eight long years, international cricket is coming to Pakistan. The ICC World XI squad is kicking things off with a scheduled tour of the country including matches in Lahore. Close on its heels will be the Sri Lankan and West Indian teams, as their respective boards have given the nod for them to play T-20 matches in Pakistan this year.

This is down to one man. PCB Chairman Najam Sethi has been relentless in his quest to have international cricket return here. And now those efforts have borne fruit, he deserves a hearty pat on the back for his vision, wisdom and meritocratic approach in hunting down the best talent to form a formidable team that went on to clinch the ICC Champions Trophy at the Oval earlier this year. This was, in many ways, a victory even bigger than that of the 1992 World Cup. Three cheers all round, hip, hip hurray.

The holding of the Pakistan Super League that brought international players to Lahore for the final is another well-deserved feather in Mr Sethi’s cap. Indeed, we are forever indebted to the grit and gallantry displayed by the Zimbabwe team in coming here in 2015. Yet while showering accolades on all concerned — we ought to join Mr Sethi in crediting Giles Clarke — head of the ICC Task Force — for the important role he played in bringing the ICC XI to Pakistan.

The international community, for its part, has started realising that terrorism is not exclusively restricted to this part of the world. Over the last few years, much of Western Europe has suffered from this ghastly menace. And there, like here, life has to find a way of going on. Isolating individual countries is no longer an option. Security remains the key to holding international events, such as the London Games, which was said to have been the most ‘militarised’ of all the Olympics. This is a burden that Pakistan understands.

Lahore has become the favourite sporting venue of all visiting foreign teams. Credit for this must go to the Punjab government that has gone out of its way over the last four years to host foreign sportsmen while paying attention to developing a formalised knowledge base, standards and practices on the security front. The new and pro-active Interior Minister has welcomed this, while assuring the PCB of the highest possible security levels for all visiting teams. In practical terms this means securing nearby residential areas, routes and the venue itself. Fortunately, cricket is played in stadiums. Meaning that it has controlled access points. This makes the task comparatively manageable in terms of spectators passing through checkpoints, walk-through gates and body search areas. Moreover, the Special Branch Punjab has trained volunteers to assist the police with security during Muharram. Why not, therefore, do the same for international sporting events? Also, our intelligence agencies should also be on hand to vet sponsors, temporary staff as well volunteers. Close coordination between the police, intelligence agencies, the PCB and first responders will pay untold dividends.

In addition, those in charge of security must keep in mind the different tactics used in recent terrorist attacks on Europe. These have included low-tech assaults such as ramming vehicles into unsuspecting crowds as well as knifing sprees. No to mention the so-called lone wolf phenomenon. And then there is the matter of drones. Though thus far not used in Pakistan by non-state actors such an eventuality cannot be entirely ruled out.

Yet we must not lose sight of the fact that security is there to protect and not to scare away teams and spectators. Which means ensuring that our security personnel have the best communication skills possible when dealing with excitable crowds. Hopefully, the international security agency that the ICC has hired to assist the visiting teams will also play its part in this regard.

Thus once these tours have proved a success on all fronts — Pakistan will have a strong case to invite more and more teams here, to play not only in Lahore but also in other cities, including Quetta and Peshawar. It would, perhaps, be a good move to hold PSL matches in Karachi to showcase that security is not restricted just to Lahore, thereby encouraging the ICC and foreign cricket officials to play matches throughout the country.

Last but not the least, a world of advice to the Indian Cricket Board and to bit-part players such as Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Instead of trying to play politics with cricket — take a leaf out of the South Africa’s Cricket Board’s book. The country’s cricketers, five of whom are part of the visiting ICC XI squad, firmly believe in showing Pakistan support. Thus to Haroon Lorgat, we say thank you for putting sportsmanship above everything else.

The writer is Honorary Director Centre for Peace and Security Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Masters in International Security, War Studies Department, King’s College London. Tweets at N Elahi@Aaibak

Published in Daily Times, August 29^th 2017.