Some players may not be ‘comfortable’ touring Pakistan: Australia captain Paine

Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine has admitted that some players won’t be comfortable touring Pakistan next year.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, yesterday, announced details of Australia’s first tour of Pakistan since 1998, which will take place in March and April 2022, and comprise three Tests, three ODIs and one T20I.

The Tests will take place in Karachi (3-7 March), Rawalpindi (12-16 March) and Lahore (21-25 March), while Lahore will be the venue for the four white-ball matches to be played from 29 March to 5 April.

“There’ll be some guys who will be happy to take the experts’ advice and others will want to know a bit more,” Paine said on SEN on Tuesday morning. “If we’re totally honest, there might be some people who aren’t comfortable going regardless.

“That’s happened before with tours going to other countries going back forever. Again there are issues that will I’m sure pop up. We’ll discuss it, people get the right answers and feel comfortable, then we’ll get hopefully the best team we can. At the end of the day, it comes down to the individual,” he added.

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Paine also recalled touring Pakistan in 2017, with the World XI side, while stating that he was both unnerved and reassured by the “extraordinary” security measures.

“The security that we had on that tour was unlike anything that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Paine said. “We had helicopters overhead, roads shut down five kilometres around us, checkpoints like every kilometre into the ground, it was extraordinary,” he said.

“The fact you’re seeing it and thinking to yourself it may be necessary can be a bit unnerving, but at the same time to see the planning and execution of it, with literally a couple of choppers above your bus 20-30 metres above your head was comforting but also unnerving at the same time,” he concluded.

It must be noted that, as part of the reconnoitering process, Cricket Australia’s delegation will visit Pakistan to meet with PCB officials as well as provincial and federal authorities to discuss and finalise matters relating to team operations, logistics, security and Covid-19 protocols.