Sri Lanka arrive in Islamabad

Sri Lanka embarked on the first Test cricket tour of Pakistan in 10 years on Monday following the deadly 2009 attack on their team that plunged Pakistan into sporting isolation.

“Touchdown Islamabad,” tweeted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), along with video of the players at the airport, while PCB chief executive Waseem Khan called their arrival a “historic occasion”.

Sri Lanka will play two Tests under heavy security, one in Rawalpindi -- where Pakistan’s army is headquartered -- and the second in Karachi, ending a decade-long absence for cricket’s five-day format since the attack.

Eight people were killed and several players and officials were wounded when militants opened fire on a convoy of buses travelling to a Test in Lahore in March 2009.

“This is my first tour to Pakistan,” said Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, who opted out of the team’s recent limited-overs tour of Pakistan.

“After the 2009 incidents players were scared to tour Pakistan but in the last two years or so Sri Lanka and other teams have toured Pakistan.”

He added: “We want to play good cricket in Pakistan and hope they give us some good security.”

The 2009 attack slammed the door shut on international sporting fixtures in cricket-loving Pakistan as foreign teams refused to visit over security fears.

Pakistan’s cricket team has been forced to play its home matches on neutral ground in the United Arab Emirates, resulting in financial losses and hard times for Pakistani fans.

International cricket began making inroads back into the country when Zimbabwe became the first team to play in Pakistan in 2015, paving the wave for a smattering of Twenty20 matches ever since. But Test matches -- considered the pinnacle of international cricket -- have until now remained absent. The first Test starts in Rawalpindi on Wednesday and the second is in Karachi from December 19.

“Pakistan’s losses due to non-hosting of international cricket have been substantial,” Waseem told AFP.