Pakistan hopes to help hosting the first major chirkite major championship in nearly 30 years to eradicate fears of instability in the country and restore confidence in it as a destination for tourism and investment.
The Champions Cup, which kicks off next week, comes to Pakistan, where the country fights many challenges, including the political crisis that sent the former Prime Minister and Crikant champion, Imran Khan, to prison.
But the government and the Pakistani Cricket Council (PCB) believe that the one -day games championship, which includes the best eight teams in the world, provides one of the most chances of building images in decades.
Cricket is a national passion in South Asian countries and a large amount of money in neighboring India.
“The return of the global cricket is not only related to hosting matches,” said Mawhsin Naqafi, Chairman of the Dual Vinyl Chlor, who is multiplied by the Minister of Interior and the head of the country.
“It comes to restoring pride, igniting national passion and returning to millions who stood alongside Pakistani cricket.”
The security environment has been cloudy in the country since the US war began in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001. The country was struggling to persuade sports teams to visit when the militants attacked a bus carrying a tour of Sri Lanka, Crkect players in Lahore in 2009. The players were wounded, and visits stopped By international teams.
Security has improved significantly since then in the main urban centers, and cricket teams from abroad have toured 2018.
The Champions Cup will be the first major championship to be held in Pakistan since 1996 and will include the host team and teams from New Zealand, England, Australia, Afghanistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and India.
Everyone agreed to play in Pakistan with the exception of India, which will play its matches in Dubai, including its confrontation with Pakistan, the latest in competition.
The country is also moving in the difficult economic recovery path, supported by a $ 7 billion facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Naqafi said that the tournament was a “huge mission” that included vast logistical improvements from roads and hotels to security.
But he said that the visiting teams were happy with the arrangements and that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had received the security plan in the board of directors with unanimous approval.
“Important Security”
“The players are treated as government agents in order to enhance security,” said Shahzada Sultan, the deputy police chief in Punjab County, where there are two of the three places inside Pakistan.
For the Champions Cup, the police in Lahore, Crachi and twin cities in Rawalbandi and Islamabad deployed more than 20,000 soldiers, including snipers on rooftops along the main roads. The hotels where the players will remain, the stadiums and airports will be kept largely as the roads that link these sites.
Sultan added: “Their movement calls for the best security in the box that we can provide at all, with their knocks under the control of a document.”
It is also expected that the fans of the participating countries will fly to Pakistan in large numbers, but the authorities have not revealed details of the number of visas issued.
Police said they would provide “iron -covered” security for both players and supporters.
The Punjab police said they had updated the monitoring systems and installed about 10,000 cameras known to the face -working face and additional CCTV cameras in the two cities.
Karachi Police said it had set up an additional Swat unit to respond to emergency situations and conducted preventive intelligence operations to determine potential threats.
“The law and order is relatively better,” said the mayor of Karachi Mortaza Wahhab.
A victory for a disaster
Pakistan hosted the International World Cup for one day as defense champions in 1996 in a period of optimism about sports in the country.
The national team won the previous edition under the leadership of Khan, who is now behind bars on charges of corruption.
His party and supporters say that the charges are politically driven. They moved to the streets to protest and clashed with the security forces, which increases instability in the country.
The Khan Party spokesman described the political climate as “strangling” but welcomed the return of the international cricket game and wished the Pakistani national team’s luck.
While the championship promises to install the image of Pakistan, the partial absence of the arc competitors India means that it is not a complete diplomatic success.
Their intensive competition means that the two cricket matches between the two are among the most sporting competitions that are seen in the world, but only play each other in multi -role events.
Pakistan’s cricket council did not comment on questions about India, but former President Najam Sethi said that hosting India would be the final prize.
“This is the crowning of a long trend for six years from everyone coming to Pakistan … but the big thing will be when India and Pakistan play each other in Pakistan,” he said.
“I think this will be the big penetration.”