England cricket team had announced a breakthrough regarding the tour of Pakistan a few weeks ago. However, the limited-overs series has suffered a setback. According to ESPNcricinfo, England Cricket Board (ECB) is set to postpone the series until September 2021. Initially, the tour was supposed to happen in January next year.
This report insists that England is postponing the tour on the grounds of cost and availability. ECB is yet to issue an official statement regarding the latest development. Despite the slight delay, it is going to be a historic series as England will be visiting Pakistan for the first time in 15 years.
Pakistan has found it difficult to bring cricket playing nations to the country for security reasons. The Asian nation has been playing all their home games in the UAE after countries started refusing to tour the country since the attack on the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009.
Things are slowly changing for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as they hosted West Indies and Zimbabwe for limited-overs series this year. Sri Lanka has also toured the nation in the recent past. Moreover, the Pakistan Super League is managing to organize games in the country rather than moving it to the UAE.
For now, it is a minor setback for PCB, but England’s insistence on going forward with the tour may lure other countries about playing bilateral series in Pakistan. England’s immediate focus will be on the tour of South Africa after the limited-overs series was given the green light by the SA government despite the chaos in the Cricket South Africa (CSA).