Pakistan to host Windies for next five years

Pakistan will host West Indies in a threematch Twenty20 series in March and the Caribbean side will be playing in the South Asian country every year for the next five years, the Pakistan Cricket Board has said.

West Indies will also host a reciprocal series against Pakistan, probably in the US, as part of the agreement. A third team will also play the US series.

“We have an agreement with West Indies for the next five years,” PCB chairman Najam Sethi said in comments published by Dawn newspaper.

“This is an independent bilateral arrangement, independent of the FTPs (Future Tour Programmes) that would be arranged with the International Cricket Council in December-January.” The first series will be held from March 29-April 1 next year in Pakistan, but venues are still to be determined.

Pakistan had largely been shunned by international teams for the past eight years due to security concerns following an attack by gunmen on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team in 2009.

Zimbabwe had a limited overs tour in May, 2015, however Sri Lanka’s Twenty20 match in Lahore last month is considered as marking the end of the isolation, with Sethi telling Reuters at the time that the West Indies had committed to tour but dates still had to be finalised.