Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir personally intervened to ensure the continuation of Sri Lanka’s cricket tour after the suicide attack in Islamabad earlier this week, Pakistan’s interior ministry said on Thursday.Pakistan interior minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Senate that Munir spoke directly with top Sri Lankan officials when the visiting players expressed hesitation about continuing the tour following the attack.Sri Lanka’s cricket board confirmed late Wednesday that the team’s ongoing tour of Pakistan would continue after what it called “high-level exchanges” between both sides.
“Our field marshal himself spoke to their defence minister, secretary and convinced them and assured them fully of [providing] security,” Naqvi, who also serves as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, said while addressing the Senate, as cited by news agency PTI.Naqvi said the Sri Lankan players had initially “decided to return after the bomb blast occurred.”“Our interaction with them began, their board, players and everyone decided with great bravery to stay here,” he added, as quoted by PTI.“They had many concerns, but we tried to allay all of those,” Naqvi said, noting that Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake also spoke with his country’s players to reassure them.He added that Pakistan has deployed extensive security for the visiting team.Naqvi also mentioned that the Zimbabwe team has arrived in Pakistan and that the remaining matches will take place in Rawalpindi.The series, initially scheduled to begin on November 17, will now start a day later on November 18, with all matches to be played in Rawalpindi instead of Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium, which was originally chosen to host the T20 games.The change followed a suicide blast in Islamabad on Tuesday that killed 12 people. The explosion occurred shortly before the first One-Day International between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was set to start in Rawalpindi.Sri Lanka’s players have previously faced such danger in Pakistan. In 2009, the team bus was attacked by gunmen on its way to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, injuring six cricketers and killing six Pakistani police officers and two civilians.
