KARACHI: The cricketing world has descended upon Pakistan \u2014 at long last. It\u2019s a moment that\u2019s been 29 years in the making, but that long wait will be worth it when Pakistan square off against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy opener at the National Bank Stadium on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The euphoria of holding an ICC tournament for the first time since 1996 is palpable; the routes to the venue are decked out in Champions Trophy branding, the stadium is decorated in bright green and blue hues, and President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to be in attendance at the opening game.<\/p>\n
According to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi, \u201cPakistan is fully prepared for the Champions Trophy\u201d. But some fans are still struggling to come to terms with the sense of occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone in 2015 told me that England and Australia will come to Pakistan, I\u2019d have definitely laughed it off,\u201d Mohammad Abdullah, a fan, told Dawn on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have deemed it delusional. When Pakistan were announced as Champions Trophy hosts, I was only expecting it to be called off eventually. So, it\u2019s a huge victory for Pakistan already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tournament ends anticipation for a generation of Pakistanis who have been waiting for international cricket\u2019s return<\/p>\n
Pakistan has surely come a long way to host an ICC event for the first time after 1996 when the country\u2019s status as a safe cricketing venue was stripped following an attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009.<\/p>\n
That year, Pakistan lost the hosting rights to the 2009 Champions Trophy and was ruled out as co-hosts of the 2011 World Cup.<\/p>\n
An era of empty, silent stadiums followed.<\/p>\n
Former PCB chairman Najam Sethi, who was at the helm of the board when Zimbabwe became the first team to visit Pakistan after the 2009 tragedy, said the Pakistan Super League played a huge part in convincing teams to tour the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite difficult [to convince teams to tour],\u201d Mr Sethi told Dawn. \u201cBut the [advent] of PSL proved that security could be managed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boon for Pakistan cricket<\/p>\n
Sixteen years on, international cricket has made a gradual return to Pakistan. More recently, the country\u2019s stadiums have been renovated and upgraded for the Champions Trophy.<\/p>\n
In an ambitious move by the Mohsin Naqvi-led PCB, the renovation work was completed in a little over 100 days, with Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi\u2019s National Stadium undergoing major plastic surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI: The cricketing world has descended upon Pakistan \u2014 at long last. It\u2019s a moment that\u2019s been 29 years in the making, but that long wait will be worth it when Pakistan square off against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy opener at the National Bank Stadium on Wednesday. The euphoria of holding an ICC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5743,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5741\/revisions\/5743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}