The Australian Cricket team is scheduled to tour Pakistan in February and March 2008. The last away series against Pakistan was actually played at neutral venues in Sri Lanka and Sharjah in 2002, due to security concerns.
Premium Sport Tours, have recently
undertaken a cricket tour to Pakistan,
being the official team organizer and
travel agent for the Australian Blind
Cricket Team, competing in the Blind
Cricket World Cup in December 2006.
(For your information, we did make
the finals, but were beaten by the
eventual winners, and home team Pakistan in the semi-final)
During this tour we (Managing Director John Schibli and Keith Stackpole) took the opportunity of previewing all arrangements for the proposed 2008 tour. This included hotel and ground inspections, liaison with our local operators, discussions with Australian government security advisors, meeting with the Australian High Commission in Islamabad and with Pakistan Cricket Board officials in Lahore.
We would also like to acknowledge the help and assistance given to us by James Sutherland and Cricket Australia, with our visit to Pakistan.
Please note that there is a Department of Foreign Affairs advice out on Pakistan, and you should be aware of this, and it is kept up-to-date, with constant reviews. The fact that the Australian A cricket team toured in 2005, and the English and West Indian teams toured in 2006 (along with the Australian Blind Cricket team, and that Pakistan hosted the Blind Cricket world cup), indicates to us, that there is a strong expectation that this tour will proceed. Of course the ultimate decision on the tour will be if the Australian team does go to Pakistan, and they will only go with the clearance of Australian Consular officials.
Our personal assessment is that we were delighted with everything we saw, and we have all our arrangements in place to operate a tour. We just await the publication of the schedule, so we can release our package.
Please note, that to the best of our knowledge, no other sporting operator has ever conducted a cricket tour to Pakistan, and very few travel agents in Australia, have ever been to Pakistan. This places us at the very forefront of travel to Pakistan, and this is not the destination that you would want to leave to operators without the experience or first-hand knowledge of the country and region.
