The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has invited the Afghanistan National side for a cricket series for the first time ever. The tour is likely to happen in 2021; if not then it would most definitely happen in 2022. The news was announced by the Pak board after the country’s Prime Minister and its first and only 50 overs World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan made an official tour to the country across the Durand line.
"We'll try to look for a possible window for this tour -- and if not 2021, we'll definitely try to plan a series in 2022 season," PCB chief executive Wasim Khan was quoted as saying to AFP.
He further said that a cricket series between Pakistan and Afghanistan could be a ‘harbinger of love and peace between the two countries’.
The two sides have so far engaged in only five official matches a T20I and four 50 over encounters, all of which have been won by the senior Pakistan team. However, during the last year’s World Cup warm-up matches, Afghanistan had defeated Pakistan, sending the cricket-crazy nation into jubilations. It even resulted in missiles being launched in the city of Kabul in mad celebrations that lasted the entire night.
The game of cricket was introduced to the Afghans when they came to live in refugee camps set up in Peshawar, the bustling city of Pakistan during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan and subsequent Russo-Taliban war of the 1980s.
Putting emphasis on the fact that Pakistan will keep on supporting Afghanistan’s rise in cricket, Wasim said, "A strong Afghanistan means a strong Asian block... so Pakistan will continue to play its part and help Afghan cricket."
The Men in Green are supposed to play Afghanistan in a three-match ODI series as part of the 2023 World Cup Super League as well and most likely the matches would take place in UAE.
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