Pakistan cricket plans T20 home matches

Pakistan cricket officials believe they can host four Twenty20s matches against an international XI at Lahore later this year.

Cricket officials in Pakistan are confident of hosting four Twenty20s matches against an international XI at Lahore in September after the trouble-free Pakistan Super League final at the Gaddafi Stadium.

"ICC 11 will play four T20 matches in Lahore in Sept. Hooray!" PSL chairman Najam Sethi posted on Twitter.

Sethi said he has been in touch with England Cricket Board president Giles Clarke, who has congratulated his Pakistani counterpart Shaharyar Khan for successfully staging the PSL final and was reported as saying: "Very well played. We will be there in September."

Clarke, who also heads ICC's Task Force for Pakistan, has been working closely with the Pakistan Cricket Board for the planned series in September.

More than 8,000 police officers and soldiers guarded the surroundings of Gaddafi Stadium and the route both teams took to the stadium on the weekend.

Thousands of spectators peacefully cleared the three security checkpoints before taking their seats at 25,000-capacity stadium.

Nine foreign players, including West Indies stars Darren Sammy and Marlon Samuels, travelled to Lahore for the final. West Indies great Viv Richards also travelled as mentor of Quetta Gladiators team, who eventually lost the final to Sammy's Peshawar Zalmi.

The group stage and previous knock-out matches in the tournament were held in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan cricket's home-away-from-home in recent years.

"To me it was more than just a game," Sammy had said after the final.

"The fans here deserve to see their players playing as they haven't seen it for quite a while."

Security officials from cricket boards including Australia, England, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the ICC also visited Pakistan for the PSL final.

Among the elite test-playing nations, Pakistan has hosted only lowly-ranked Zimbabwe - for a short limited-overs series - in the last eight years since an attack on the Sri Lanka team's bus as it travelled to a match in Lahore in 2009.


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Source: AAP



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