Dubai Najam Sethi, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, has announced that West Indies will play three Twenty20 matches in Karachi.
Speaking after handing over the Pakistan Super League Trophy to the ticketing partners TCS to carry it to Karachi for the final, Sethi said: “Karachi will not only host the PSL final on March 25, but also a T20 International series against West Indies in April.”
Sethi revealed that all efforts are on to put Karachi in the cricketing map. “I have been working day and night to conclude an agreement with West Indies, which I just have finalised an hour ago. Good news is that West Indies will play three games on April 1, 2 and 4. These matches will be played in Karachi. They will not play in Lahore but in Karachi and that is how we intent to put Karachi back on cricket map once again. PSL final and now three more international games for Karachi. So Karachi people should welcome it and the whole of Pakistan,” said Sethi, who also said that all efforts will be done to host the next year’s PSL in Pakistan
“PSL will surely go to Pakistan. I have informed the infrastructure people to make Pindi Stadium and Karachi stadium ready for it. For Karachi we have already a sanctioned a budget to make the stadium full-fledged by the next PSL. Multan and Lahore are all ready,” said Sethi, who reminded that “Karachi is a safe city and we will play there.
“Their ICC expert will stay back for seven days on our expense and conduct the security for West Indies series and this is part of our agreement with West Indies board. This will be a one-off series and probably will be a loss making enterprise. The ideas wasn’t to make money as it was meant to bring cricket back so this is the step in that direction.”
Sethi also said that plans are on for a triangular tournament involving Pakistan, West Indies and probably Bangladesh. This series may be held in August.
