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

Hamza Hameed November 8, 2021

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ECB chief to meet with Ramiz Raja in advance of England’s Test tour in 2022

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, has flown to Pakistan to repair the board’s damaged relationships with their PCB counterparts, and to discuss future tours.

Now Harrison has flown in to assure Ramiz Raja, 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.

Speaking in the wake of that cancellation – 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.

“I am severely disappointed in England’s withdrawal but it was expected because this western bloc gets united unfortunately and tries to back each other,” Ramiz said. “This is a lesson for us because we go out of our way to accommodate and pamper these sides when they visit. From now on we will only go as far as is in our interest.”

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 comes on the same day that Cricket Australia announced its plans for a three-Test, three-ODI and one-off T20I tour in March 2022. If it goes ahead as planned, it will be their first tour of the country since 1998.

George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

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