Karachi: Pakistan will take another significant step towards the revival of international cricket as World Twenty20 champions the West Indies feature in three back-to-back Twenty20 internationals in Karachi from Sunday.
The Pakistan Cricket Board have put in place stringent security arrangements for the West Indies team, with 8,000 policemen and paramilitary personnel guarding the visitors in and around the hotel and stadium.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee David Boon will supervise the series while ICC general manager cricket Geoff Allardice and umpires’ manager Adrian Griffith will also attend the matches to oversee arrangements.
The series comes as Pakistan is enjoying guarded optimism over the return of international cricket, driven from the country after a deadly militant attack targeting the Sri Lanka team in 2009.
Earlier this month Karachi successfully hosted the final of the popular Pakistan Super League (PSL), becoming the second major venue to host international matches after Lahore hosted Zimbabwe in 2015.
Lahore also hosted the PSL final in March last year, three World XI matches in September and one against Sri Lanka a month later.
This year’s PSL final was the first major cricket event in Karachi since 2009. Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed said he was overjoyed at the return of international matches to his home city.
“This is a great occasion,” said Sarfraz, the only player in the squad who has played a limited-over international in Karachi before.
“We saw a big crowd in the PSL final so I hope they will come in big numbers for the Twenty20 series.”
The other two matches will be played on Monday and Tuesday.
