Published: Jul 03, 2017, 10:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 03, 2017, 10:26 PM (IST)
Karachi: The outgoing chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Shahryar Khan has invited the ICC chairman Shashank Manohar to visit Lahore in August. Khan confirmed on Monday that he had spoken to Manohar during the ICC meetings in London in June and extended an invitation to him. “Manohar said he will look into the invitation and try to make it. But nothing is confirmed yet,” Khan said. Sources close to Khan said he had invited Manohar, a former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, to formally attend a farewell reception which will be given to the him in Lahore. Sri Lanka likely to tour Pakistan later this year
The PCB is set to elect a new chairman at its Governing Board meeting later this month but Khan will complete his three-year term in mid-August. “The idea behind inviting Manohar to Lahore is to also finalise the World XI’s tour to Pakistan in September as the ICC has shown its support for the tour,” the source said. Najam Sethi, who heads the PCB’s executive committee and is expected to succeed Khan, said the ICC will make the decision of who will lead the World XI to Lahore. “We see the World XI tour as the beginning of good times for Pakistan cricket and that is why we are giving it so much importance,” Sethi said. Manohar: Resignation has nothing to do with ICC/BCCI functioning issues
No top Test team has toured Pakistan since March 2009 when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore. Khan also confirmed that the PCB was still trying to convince the Sri Lankan cricket board to send its team to Lahore to play a few T20 matches in 2017, while he said that the board had dropped the idea of inviting new Test entrants — Ireland — to Pakistan. “We had invited Ireland in recent times but they have asked for fees to come to Pakistan and right now we are not in a position to afford such expenses,” Khan said.
