ABOC-Cricinfo

Downhill to PCB to talk into other nations – Dave Richardson

Dave Richardson, the ICC CEO, has said the ICC has a partial role to play in the continuation of international cricket in Pakistan and it will be downward to the PCB to encourage other nations that it is safe to play cricket in the country.

"Sanctuary is not something that is taken unconscientiously by anybody," Richardson, who was in Pakistan for the PCB awards ritual, said. "Creation a decision as to whether it's safe or not involves a serious assessment of the risk. The ICC is not in a place to do [security evaluation]. It's up to the member countries to make a decision. They have to take counsel from their own security advisors and make decisions themselves.

"The base line is that the ICC views Pakistan as a very significant part of international cricket," he said. "Pakistan is going from side to side difficult times through no responsibility of the PCB. It's our role to hold up Pakistan in its efforts to make sure that international cricket proceeds to Pakistan. As soon as likely is what all and sundry would like, but it's tricky to say accurately when and I think that's about as much as far as we can go at this stage."

Pakistan has remained a no-go country for international teams seeing as the assault on the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009. In the precedent three years, Pakistan have played their residence series typically in the UAE but give-and-take series at the junior level are on hold. Although the PCB has been frantic to revitalize international cricket, the pains so far haven't yielded any optimistic results.

Richardson said the current "revival of ties with 

India" is a step in the accurate direction

The PCB relies greatly on the government to organize safety for the visiting teams, but previous year it authorized the acquire of bulletproof buses. Separately from working on protection protocols, the PCB has been working on identifying probable new venues across the country and improvement them to international standards. The board is also lobbying hard to win back the self-confidence of the teams.

"Coming from a country [South Africa] which was out of international cricket for a very great period of my career, I know that if you contemplate on your domestic cricket and you make sure you give confidence people to play the game even if it's at first-class level you can gather marvelous rewards and in fact unhelpful can turn into a positive and at the end of it all you might find that Pakistan cricket is much stronger than it was even before these difficult times."

Richardson also visited the National Cricket Academy where he was brief about the development in Pakistan cricket and PCB's strategy with regards to endorsement and organization of the game in the country.

"The initiatives that PCB has place in place over the previous 12 months or so I think it's the accurate way to go," Richardson said and added that the fresh "renewal of ties with India" is a step in the right bearing as the ties between the two countries are serious for world cricket.

"The announcement of the Twenty20 opposition [PSL] where foreign players will be allowed to come and play if obtainable, again that is, I think, an proposal on the right path because what you've got to do is to recuperate the assurance of cricketing world and I think that's a very rational step in the right direction."