Australia’s visit to Pakistan will brighten up the prospects

Cricket Australia is hopeful its elite men’s team will tour Pakistan in 2022 but won’t rush a decision, chief executive Kevin Roberts says.

Roberts and CA’s head of security Sean Carroll have just returned from Pakistan, the first visit of a high-level Australian delegation in more than a decade.

Australia haven’t played in Pakistan since 1998 because of security concerns.

Roberts says his visit was aimed at strengthening relationships with the Pakistan Cricket Board rather than assessing whether Australia’s 2022 tour would proceed.

“The beauty of the timing of this visit, we wanted it to happen well before we were faced with a key decision,” Roberts told.

The purpose was really to understand the landscape, look at the plans they have in place around security and then start expressing our expectations for the safety of our players and our support staff well over two years away from when we’re due to tour.

He said, “So that we’re not dealing with that in a pressure-cooker environment a couple of months before the tour.”

“Things are heading in the right direction, but in saying that we were travelling in armored cars and escorted by police and felt very safe over there. But certainly that level of security is still required at this point”, he added.