The Pakistan Army has been tasked with providing security for the upcoming Pakistan-Australia Test cricket series, which is scheduled through March and April and will take place in Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Lahore.
The first series, which runs from March 4 to March 8, will take place in Rawalpindi, before moving to Karachi for the second test match on March 12-16 and Lahore for the third test match on March 21-25. Three ODIs and one T20 will then be held again in Rawalpindi.
According to reports from Geo TV, security arrangements from the much awaited series have been finalized. Shopping malls and markets near the cricket stadiums will reportedly be closed, and mobile services will be suspended in certain areas as the teams are transported between games.
An additional 4,000 police personnel will be stationed across the city.
Australian test skipper Pat Cummins said last week that the team was satisfied with Pakistani security arrangements for the games.
“We’ve got to a place where everyone hopping on the plane is comfortable with where it’s all sitting. It’s been a really thorough body of work that the security and the logistics teams have worked through,” Cummins told reporters on Friday. “We’re feeling really good and once we get over there, we’re going to be able to just concentrate on the cricket.”
The series will be the first time the Australian men’s team has toured Pakistan since 1998. International cricket teams had long stayed away from matches in Pakistan, after a terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009 killed eight people and injured seven. International cricket returned to Pakistan almost a decade later in 2019.
