Tag: Tom Harrison

  • England to play two additional T20Is during their tour to Pakistan in 2022

    England to play two additional T20Is during their tour to Pakistan in 2022

    England will play two additional Twenty20s during their tour to Pakistan next year, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Chief Executive Tom Harrison announced on Tuesday.

    Pakistani cricket fans were infuriated by ECB’s decision to unilaterally cancel their joint men’s and women’s trip to Pakistan, which had been planned for October, with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja saying that his nation had been “used then binned” as part of a “West versus rest” mentality.

    That visit would have been England’s first since 2005 and came against the backdrop of New Zealand’s prior withdrawal from Pakistan, citing a specific and credible security threat.

    Harrison travelled this week in an apparently successful bid to repair relations, agreeing to extend what had been a five-match T20 series to a bumper seven-match rubber next September and October.

    England will also return for a three-Test series starting in November, after the T20 World Cup in Australia.

    Announcing the deal, Harrison said: “Myself and ECB’s senior director Martin Darlow visited Lahore to talk face to face with the PCB around some of the things that have happened over the past few weeks, leading to the cancellation of our tour in October.

    “We also wanted to discuss the future as the two boards have a historic relationship and want to move the agenda towards a forward-looking one as opposed to one looking back.

    “This is just to reaffirm our commitment to Pakistan cricket to getting England teams, men’s and women’s teams, eventually playing in Pakistan at home.

    “I don’t think there’s a cricketer in England who doesn’t want to test their abilities against the huge talent this country has and in the conditions they know best.”

    It was announced earlier this week that Australia would tour Pakistan for the first time since 1998 when they visit the country in March and April 2022 for three Tests, three ODIs and a T20 international.

    “The ECB have shown their large heartedness to be here for which I am thankful to Tom and Martin. It means a lot to us,” said Ramiz Raja.

  • ECB chief Tom Harrison flies to Pakistan in bid to repair relations between England cricket and PCB

    ECB chief Tom Harrison flies to Pakistan in bid to repair relations between England cricket and PCB

    England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison will meet with Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, as well as Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja, in a bid to repair relations with Pakistan in the wake of last month’s cancelled T20I tour.

    Read More – New Zealand cancels Pak series due to ‘security concerns’ despite PM Khan’s call to NZ PM

    Officials at the PCB were enraged when England pulled out of the two-match tour at short notice a few weeks ago.

    Now Harrison has flown in to assure Ramiz, the new chairman of the PCB, that England remain committed to their Test tour of the country at the end of 2022. England have not toured Pakistan since late 2005.

    He is also set to meet with PM Khan, Pakistan’s greatest allrounder and World Cup-winning captain, prior to his move into politics, who also serves as patron-in-chief of the PCB.

    Speaking in the wake of the cancelled T20I tour, which followed hot on the heels of New Zealand’s abandonment of their own tour on the morning of their opening ODI in Rawalpindi, Ramiz hit out at what he called cricket’s “western bloc”, and said that the PCB would be making contingency plans to protect their home itinerary in the event of another England pull-out next year.

    Reportedly, Harrison’s trip is only expected to last a couple of days. He is due in the UAE later in the week as the ICC hold their first in-person chief executives’ meeting since the start of the pandemic.

    The news came after Cricket Australia announced its plans for a three-Test, three-ODI and one T20I tour in March-April 2022. If it goes ahead as planned, it will be their first tour of the country since 1998.