ST JOHN’S – Cricket West Indies (CWI) said it plans to fulfil its tour obligations wherever possible, including to Pakistan in December.
CWI chief executive officer Johnny Grave said the sport’s regional governing body will follow the same measures they did three years ago when the Windies, under Jason Mohammed, were swept convincingly in three Twenty20 Internationals in Karachi.
“At this stage, our intention is to fulfil our touring obligations,” Grave told the Trinidad Newsday newspaper. “We’ve got a pretty clear process that we go through with independent security experts, like we did in 2018.
“We will follow that process, the board of directors, WIPA (West Indies Players’ Association), as well as the players themselves will review the plans and our reports, including the independent security advice. Most of our women’s and men’s players have played in Pakistan in the last few years.”
The Caribbean’s side tour of Pakistan came into sharp focus after New Zealand abandoned its tour to the south Asian country last Friday citing security concerns and England withdrew on Monday from sending their men’s and women’s team there for similar reasons.
“We don’t have to make an imminent decision,” Grave told Newsday. “We will just go through the process first, with the PCB and the security experts.
“We’ll have a meeting with the players to answer any questions and give them all the information. We’re just at the start of that process now, with the women’s team just finishing against South Africa.”
He said: “We’re firming up our plans, with the World Cup qualifiers and, from a men’s perspective, we’re focussed very much on the (Twenty20) World Cup. That’s the major operations focus.
“We’re looking at getting our T20 players to the World Cup and our Test players into Antigua for a camp, and then over to Sri Lanka. We’re not due (in Pakistan) with the men’s team until December 9, so we’ve got a bit of time.”
West Indies are scheduled to play three One-day Internationals and three T20 Internationals in Pakistan.
(CMC)
