Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi and Chief Operating Officer Subhan Ahmad have been issued visas to attend the International Cricket Council meetings in Kolkata from April 22.
There were apprehensions that the PCB officials might face difficulties in getting the Indian visas for the ICC meet. However, contacts between the ICC and Board of Control for Cricket in India have resulted in the visas being issued by the Islamabad based Indian High Commission.
Sethi and Subhan will be flying to Kolkata on April 21 for the meetings, where Pakistan’s security arrangements of the Pakistan Super League matches, and the Twenty20 series against the West Indies in Lahore and Karachi will be discussed, a source from the PCB was quoted as saying.
Giles Clarke, the head of the ICC’s special task force on Pakistan cricket, is also due to submit a report on the return of international matches to Pakistan. Sethi will be using the meetings to convince other board officials to send their teams to Pakistan now, the source said.
The ICC meetings will also allow Pakistan and Indian board officials to look at existing relations. Sethi confirmed the issuance of the visas and said this was the responsibility of the ICC from the start. He further stated that he would be requesting the ICC to schedule its board meeting sometime in Lahore next year.
The annual ICC meeting is to be held in Dublin in June, followed by another meeting in October in the West Indies. We will request the ICC members to have their next meeting in Pakistan sometime next year, he said.
The issuance of visas to the PCB officials comes as a breakthrough, as in the last 12 to 15 months, the Indian High Commission has turned down visa applications from different Pakistani sporting contingents including hockey, squash and wrestling.