International cricket will not return to Pak soon: Richardson

Karachi, September 16: International Cricket Council CEO Dave Richardson on Saturday (September 16) ruled out an "overnight miraculous" return of international cricket to Pakistan even though it was satisfied with the successful staging of the Independence Cup in Lahore.

"Returning full-time international cricket back to Pakistan is not going to be an overnight miracle. It has to take time. The PSL final was the first step, this is the second," Richardson said.

"We have now shown that events can be staged in one city over a short period of time in a Twenty20 format. Now, the next steps have to be taken, meaning can they be rolled out in more than one city over a longer period of time. Probably the next steps would be a tour by a Full Member country as opposed to a composite team."

Satisfied with the conduct of the tournament, Richardson said this will give a lot of confidence to big teams such as Australia and South Africa.

"I am very satisfied. Back in 2009, the confidence in the security situation in Pakistan was obviously at an all-time low.

"And following on, over the past 12 to 24 months, the improvements made by the Pakistan security forces was a catalyst for moving from that phase of playing in neutral territories to try to make an effort to bring international cricket back to Pakistan," he said.

"The main objective of that is to try to build confidence in the likes of the Australians, South Africans and other countries that the threat can be managed and this tour has shown -- that is the case.

"The security arrangements were unprecedented, yes, they were severe, but above all, everybody realised that it is all very well to have a security plan on paper but can it be implemented? And that's a question they answered in the affirmative," Richardson added.