Getting cricket back in Pakistan: PCB chief to reach out to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

PCB chief Shaharyar Khan will use a meeting of the Asian Cricket Council in Colombo to bring relations with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka back on track and get their support for return of international cricket to Pakistan. Shaharyar on Saturday flew out to Colombo, where he will chair the ACC meeting, and PCB insiders told PTI he will seek to convince Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to support the two-tier system for Test cricket proposed by the International Cricket Council.

"The PCB got a shock after reading the statement by the media spokesman of the Bangladesh Cricket Board that they had turned down an invitation to play a couple of T20 matches in Pakistan this year because of security concerns," a reliable PCB source said. The Bangladesh board has said that its security experts who visited Lahore for the PSL final were not satisfied with the situation in Pakistan.

"Shaharyar will discuss in detail the security situation in Pakistan with both boards and try to convince them to support Pakistan cricket at this time," the source said. "There is a feeling in the PCB that perhaps more needs to be done to streamline relations with the Bangladesh and Sri Lankan boards, especially keeping in mind several contentious issues and proposals that will come up for voting at the next ICC meeting," he said.