Sri Lanka has decided to resume playing cricket in Pakistan after a four-year gap, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Pakistani minister Ahsan Iqbal in Colombo on Tuesday, according to Associated Press of Pakistan (APP). Rajapaksa said a Sri Lankan team will soon play in Pakistan.
Pic by APP
Sri Lanka stopped sending its cricket team to Pakistan after the March 2009 terror attack on its squad in Lahore that injured six of its players and left six Pakistani policemen and two civilians dead.
The minister highlighted the significance of sporting ties in bringing the people of South Asia together. Rajapaksa also said that relations with Pakistan “have stood the test of time”, APP reported. The Pakistani minister said both countries should take bilateral trade from the present $400 million to over $1 billion.
pics AFP
Pingback: Politics and cricket: Rajapaksa and Pakistan; Sanga and the Cowdrey Lecture | Thuppahi's Blog