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England cricket board confirms England could tour Pakistan in 2021. This would be the first tour of England in over a decade. ECB officials confirmed that they had received an invitation to visit Pakistan at the beginning of the year in 2021 for a “short white-ball series”.

world cup champions England have not played any international matches in Pakistan since 2005/06.

The incident took place in 2009 when some armed militants attacked Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore which ultimately terminated major cricket tours for a decade.

Though the big teams like Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies, and Bangladesh have all visited Pakistan earlier for cricket series.

England Cricket Board issued a statement stated, “After discussions with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), we can confirm the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has received an invitation in respect of a short white-ball tour to Pakistan during the early part of 2021.

“We welcome the fact that international cricket is returning to Pakistan and are committed to doing what we can to help this develop further.”

“The safety and welfare of our players and staff are paramount”, with security issues and the development of COVID-19 secure ‘bubbles’ of the kind pioneered in England this year among the ECB’s key concerns.

ECB added, “We will be liaising with the PCB, and as well as other partners over the coming weeks to work through these considerations before a final decision will be taken in due course.”

ECB did not define any confirmed dates, though the chief executive of the PCB, Wasim Khan said: “We have sent them a window of January 13-20, so we will do our best to make this tour happen.

“They (ECB) will consider it (invitation) and have a security assessment.

He further added “It will be a very important tour and help improve our credibility as a host.”

‘You owe Pakistan’

Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram said in August, “You (England) boys owe Pakistan cricket, and the country, a lot, with the boys coming over here.”

Later ahead Joe Root also said: “I’d love to go and visit Pakistan.”

England had a tour to South Africa next month but there are doubts that the campaign could still go ahead after the country’s government indicated it was about to interrupt in the South Africa chaotic cricket administration.

England later had a schedule in Sri Lanka in January 2021 which was originally halted in March because of Coronavirus pandemic.

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