LAHORE: The visit of the Zimbabwe security delegation to assess security in Pakistan has been reduced to one day from three days.

The team will arrive on May 6 and return the same day after monitoring security arrangements being made for their upcoming series with Pakistan.

Zimbabwe will play all three One-day Internationals and two T20 matches in Lahore.

The delegation will consist of four persons who will be from the Zimbabwe cricket board and security agencies.

It was earlier decided that the said delegation would tour Pakistan from May 4 to 6 but as the Zimbabwe cricket board had already given the green signal to the tour, trusting on PCB’s arrangements, importance of this security team has reduced.

It is also learnt that a member of the ICC security team may also join Zimbabwe to personally monitor the security arrangements in Lahore.

As Zimbabwe is the first Test-playing country which is visiting Pakistan after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, the ICC will closely watch the situation.

The ICC has refused to appoint its match officials for the series to avoid any security risk. It has, however, allowed the PCB to appoint local umpires and match referee, and agreed with the PCB that the matches will get international status.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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