Australia must walk the talk on Pakistan tour

Announcing a tour of Pakistan is one thing, but Cricket Australia must now follow through on its commitment.

Pakistan's captain Babar Azam walks past the national flag at a practice session on the eve of the one-day international series against New Zealand in September before it was cancelled on the morning of the first match Picture: AFP

Pardon the cynicism, but Australian cricket is making promises out the side of its mouth about touring Pakistan for the first time in 24 years.

Chances they will walk the talk are slim, but if they do it will go some way to rebuilding a poor reputation on this front.

If the past – distant and recent – is any guide Australia are world champions at shirking collective responsibility for cricket’s wellbeing.

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While the rest of the cricket world has got on with business in the last two years, Tim Paine and Aaron Finch’s men have been on the longest sickie in modern history.

Not one single overseas Test since the end of the 2019 Ashes. Not. One.

Finch’s mob snuck over to India and South Africa before things got hairy, but with the exception of a brave dash over the top into England in the middle of that year it was back under the doona doing nada until recent white-ball tours of New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh on the eve of the T20 World Cup.

Even then, most of the big names were washing their hair or otherwise occupied.

These are extraordinary times we live in, but other nations have basically got on with it and essentially Australia is living up to its reputation for being the most fickle of touring sides. India, England and South Africa aside everything else is a strain for the home boys.

That aside, the fact New Zealand fled a recent tour of Pakistan and England shamefully scuttled one soon after is indication of just how problematic such a tour is.

Dates were confirmed on Monday and given some form of endorsement by Cricket Australia.

Chief executive Nick Hockley said the organisation would “continue to work closely over the coming months to finalise the necessary operations, logistics, security and Covid-19 protocols”.

“Cricket Australia is excited about the prospect of touring Pakistan next year for what will be a highly anticipated series in a country so incredibly passionate about the game and their national team.

“The safety and welfare of our players and staff remains our number one priority, and we will continue to work with the PCB and relevant agencies to ensure that appropriate and sufficient arrangements are put in place for the tour.”

Read into that what you will.

Getting to this point is a triumph and a credit to recently departed PCB chief executive Wasim Khan who came to Australia a few summers back and spent every minute quietly assuring and lobbying for a return to the country which has suffered such neglect – some of it understandable – in the past decade.

Look, the first thing people are going to ask is would you go yourself and the answer is a major yes. I have very fond memories of Pakistan, especially the northern regions up on the border of Afghanistan, in the early 90s before all the grim unpleasantness that followed.

That said cricketers with young families may have a very different attitude and they can’t be criticised for that.

You have to have some sympathy too for Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers Association who will be asked to sign off on this tour.

It is one thing to weigh personal risk another to consider the risks of others. If something goes wrong you are responsible for placing them in a situation where many will argue problems were foreseeable.

The mention of Pakistan has had a few clearing their throats and mumbling about the conditioner.

One thing you can put your house on is the tour will not proceed as promoted.

It’s too long, it demands too much security – the costs of which are enormous to the local board. To this point its taken thousands of security personnel, vast expanses of locked down ground and all manner of excesses.

Tim Paine and George Bailey went in 2017 as part of a World XI – the only other side to tour since 2019 had been Zimbabwe.

Paine told Gerard Whateley on SEN this morning that the security was incredible. Helicopters were flying 40m above the team bus on the way to the ground (you’d want good noise cancelling headphones).

There are three Tests, three ODIs and a T20 in four different locations listed for the tour which runs from early March to early April.

“There might be some people who aren’t comfortable going regardless. That has happened before. We’ll discuss it,” Paine told SEN.

The Australian captain, who is about to turn 38, is unlikely to continue past the Ashes and as usual did not want to look too far into the future.

“I’m always looking one Test match at a time and one series at a time. You’d be foolish to look too far past the series that us coming up,” he said.

“I’ll play out this Ashes series, see how I feel, see how we go, see what the teammates think. If I go to Pakistan, then great, if not I’ll go back and play for Tasmania. I am certainly not swinging one way or the other.”