Our Intention Is To Fulfill Our Touring Obligations - Cricket West Indies Chief Johnny Grave

Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief executive Johnny Grave has revealed that they plan to honour their commitment by touring all the nations they had earlier scheduled, including Pakistan. The news comes as a respite for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after New Zealand and England backed out of their tours citing security concerns.

West Indies had toured Pakistan back in 2018, just a few months after cricket had returned to the Asian country. Although it was a short tour of three T20Is, it showed their willingness to support Pakistan and its quest to be regarded as a safe place to visit for the cricketing teams.

“At this stage, our intention is to fulfill our touring obligations. We’ve got a pretty clear process that we go through with independent security experts, as 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,” Grave was quoted as saying by Trinidad Newsday on Thursday.

We’re not due in Pakistan until December 9 so we’ve got a bit of time – Johnny Grave

The ICC T20 World Cup 2021 is coming up soon so the international teams are occupied with the preparation for that tournament. CWI is also holding talks on how to go about the ICC event and will then contemplate planning their tours of Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

“We’re firming up our plans, with the World Cup qualifiers and, from a men’s perspective, we’re focused very much on the (T20) World Cup. That’s the focus of the major operation. 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,” Grave revealed.

West Indies is scheduled to play a white-ball series comprising three T20Is and as many ODIs against Pakistan.

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