Lahore: Pakistan will be seeking to provide foolproof security to the Zimbabwe cricket team in the same city where international matches got suspended six years ago after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus at Lahore.
When it arrives early Tuesday, Zimbabwe will become the first test country to tour Pakistan since that fatal attack on Sri Lankans which not only wounded several visiting cricketers but also left six police officials and a van driver dead.
Security officials were busy on Monday in final preparations to provide high level security to the visitors, with dozens of CCTV cameras installed in the surroundings of Gaddafi Stadium - the venue of the two Twenty20s and three ODIs between May 22-31.
A helicopter also carried out aerial surveillance of the Gaddafi Stadium, which was accessible only to the officials and workers of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
(Photo: AP)
Thousands of policemen and security officials are expected to shield the Zimbabweans during their journey of nearly seven kilometers from the airport to the team hotel and to the stadium before the team leaves on June 1.
The tour was in jeopardy last week after militants killed dozens of minority Shiites in a bus in the southern port city of Karachi.
Zimbabwe Cricket first issued a statement that it was suspending the tour but retracted that within half an hour. The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan talked to his counterpart Wilson Manase three times and convinced him to go through with the tour.
"It's a very good news for millions of Pakistan cricket team fans that international cricket is coming to Pakistan," former test captain Rashid Latif said.
"I think it's a beginning of a new era for Pakistan cricket and many more teams will come after we successfully organize this series."
The ICC has given the "official" status to the series but declined to send its match officials, citing security concerns in Pakistan. Zimbabwean umpire Russel Tiffin will be the onfield umpire in all the three ODIs along with Pakistani umpires.
Umpire Ahsan Raza, who was injured during the attack in 2009, will be the onfield umpire in the two Twenty20s and will also stand with Tiffin as onfield umpire in the last ODI on May 31.
While the game's governing body went with the advice of its security expert, the international players' federation also had reservations over Zimbabwe's tour and said earlier this month that the security risk was "unmanageable" in Pakistan.
However, Zimbabwe players were upbeat on Monday when they left Harare.
"Boarding the plane to Pakistan for what promises to be a great series VS @TheRealPCB Insha ALLAH all goes well for both teams and countries," tweeted Zimbabwe cricketer Sikander Raza.
