How Pak Army Chief convinced Lankan players to stay back

'Our field marshal spoke to their defence minister and secretary and convinced them and assured them fully of (providing) security.'

Pakistan military chief directly intervened to salvage the home series involving Sri Lanka following the suicide attack in Islamabad, the country's interior ministry informed on Thursday.

Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Senate that Field Marshal Asim Munir facilitated the talks with Sri Lanka's top officials after the touring Lankan cricketers threatened to pull out of the series amid safety concerns.  

Sri Lanka's cricket board later informed that the team's ongoing tour of Pakistan will proceed, following the high-level exchanges.

“Our field marshal spoke to their defence minister and secretary and convinced them and assured them fully of (providing) security,” Naqvi, who also serves as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief, said.

“Our interaction with them began, their board, players and everyone decided with great bravery to stay here." 

“They had many concerns, but we tried to allay all of those,” Naqvi said and revealed that Sri Lanka's President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had also spoken to the cricketers to convince them to stay back.

Naqvi said that high-level security was being provided to the visitors.

“And now, the Pakistan Army, Rangers and Islamabad police together are managing their security, and we are providing them the same kind of protocol and security as they are our state guests.” 

He noted that the Zimbabwe team has arrived in Pakistan, and the rest of the matches will be held in Rawalpindi.

The series will now begin on November 18, instead of November 17 and Rawalpindi will be the sole venue. Originally, the matches were scheduled to be held at Lahore's Gadaffi stadium.

The crisis followed after a suicide blast in Islamabad on Tuesday, which killed 12 people. It occurred just before the start of the first ODI between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi.

The Lankan team survived a terrorist attack in 2009 when the bus carrying them to the Gaddafi Cricket stadium was attacked by gunmen, injuring six cricketers and killing six Pakistani police personnel and two civilians.