Pakistan offers plenty to ponder

“There were heavy security measures put in place, particularly for the overseas players. They even shut down roads that were the route from the airport to the hotel. It was over the top in a way, but I felt safe.” - JP Duminy on playing in Pakistan.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IS 10 days long enough for a team to play three T20s in two cities 1,200 kilometres apart? And that after one of the sides involved have had 15 white-ball games — no two of them consecutively at the same venue — across 45 days in a couple of different countries a hemisphere apart? That’s already a tall order. Now add this: the country hosting the three T20s is Pakistan. And the place that team will come from, and several of their players will need to return to after the 10-day window, is India.

South Africa are about to lurch into three ODIs and as many T20s against England at home, and another three in each format against visiting Australia. Then it’s off to India for three seemingly gratuitous ODIs.

That jaunt ends on March 18. In other years the South Africans in the IPL, which starts on March 29, would stay on in India. Not this year. If two security experts who are to visit Lahore and Karachi give the all-clear in the next few weeks, South Africa’s squad — which promises to be similar to their T20 side — will journey from Kolkata, where the third ODI against India will be played, to Pakistan.

That won’t be simple. For reasons bigger than cricket, but not unrelated to it, there are no direct routes by air between India and Pakistan. Instead the South Africans will have to go via Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Abu Dhabi or even Istanbul on flights ranging from almost nine hours to more than 33 hours. That done, and the three T20s played, some of the players will need to make the trip in reverse. Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Lungi Ngidi and Imran Tahir are sure to have to hurry: all or some of them will likely be required for the IPL opener between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. Others who could be in a similar but slightly slower boat are Kagiso Rabada, David Miller, Chris Morris, AB de Villiers — who seems set to come out of international retirement, at least at T20 level — and Dale Steyn, who are sprinkled between Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

That has led to fresh doubts that the Pakistan tour will go ahead, as mooted, in March. And not only because those now running Cricket South Africa’s daily affairs may be less than keen to see through a commitment made in November by a now removed administration that is under investigation for mismanagement.

The IPL ends on May 24 and South Africa are next in action in the Caribbean in July. So they would appear to be time enough. But whether the tour happens at all is dependent on a favourable report by the security professionals, who are, understandably, insisting on carrying out their inspection under match conditions in both Lahore and Karachi, the likely venues for the T20s.

They had hoped to do so during Bangladesh’s three T20s and Test in Pakistan, a tour scheduled to end on February 11. But the same company is part of the security details for the ongoing under-19 World Cup in South Africa, which ends on February 9, and consequently they have been unable to go to Pakistan. Their next opportunity will be during the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which is set to run from February 20 to March 22 — and Pakistan in full for the first time, having been staged mostly in the United Arab Emirates in the past.

One of the security specialists told Cricbuzz they had confidence that “Pakistan have the ability to write and implement a very rigorous security plan”, as they had for the teams from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Bangladesh who have been to the country since international cricket resumed there in May 2015. Since then, a World XI that included Hashim Amla, Du Plessis, Miller, Tahir and Morné Morkel have also played in Pakistan. That followed more than six years of Pakistanis not being able to watch their team play at home in the wake of a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore on March 3, 2009 that killed eight and wounded nine.

But, the expert said, while South Africa’s players would likely be safe they would also be trapped in a sanitised bubble: “That means no team dinners outside of the hotel and no going to places of entertainment. I was in Lahore between 18 and 24 months ago, and the roads are closed from the team hotel to Gaddafi stadium. They actually clear the road of traffic.”

JP Duminy’s recollection of the security arrangements for the two ODIs he played, in Multan and Lahore in October 2007, is that they were “not as hectic but they were quite heavy”. He was comparing his experience then to when he played for Islamabad United against Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL final in Karachi in March 2018. Only three of the tournament’s total of 34 games that were not played in Dubai or Sharjah. The other two were in Lahore. “We flew in the day before, we practised, we spent the night, we played the game in the evening, and we left in the early hours of the next morning,” Duminy said. “We were in the country for between 36 and 40 hours. It was literally hotel, stadium and airport.

“The country was still under the microscope. There were heavy security measures put in place, particularly for the overseas players. They even shut down roads that were the route from the airport to the hotel. It was over the top in a way, but I felt safe.

“Those were the … not restrictions, but regulations for us to go. We were given assurities by the security company that it was safe to go. So we were fine.”

Would he go again, given the chance? “Yes, I think I would. If the green light was given by the security company: they would need to go and do a recce there.”

To Pakistanis, who live their country’s realities daily, this may seem an overly precious attitude, especially as it emanates from South Africa — where the streets are a long way from safe. The difference could be that cricket is precious to Pakistanis in a way that it isn’t to South Africans. But are the public willing to put up with being treated like undesirables if that’s what it takes to get the game back on their grounds at international level? If the past few years are the yardstick, it seems they are. Or that, unlike foreign players, they don’t have the choice.

First published by Cricbuzz.