ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said it will donate earnings from the first T20 match with England held this week to flood victims in Pakistan where a historic and intense monsoon and flash floods have killed nearly 1,600 people since mid-June.
England’s cricket team arrived in Karachi on September 15 for their first tour of Pakistan in 17 years, a lengthy absence brought about by security fears following attacks on international teams.
England are scheduled to play a seven-match T20 series in Pakistan. They won the first game of the tournament in Karachi on Monday.
“For the first T20 international match 1.3 million rupees were [raised] as gate money [ticket sales] and all this money will be deposited in the Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund,” PCB said in a statement on Wednesday.
PCB chief executive Faisal Hasnain said in a statement it was an “honor” for the PCB to make a contribution to flood aid.
England, who last toured Pakistan in 2005, play four matches in Karachi and three in Lahore before returning in December to play three tests in the second leg of the tour.
International teams have largely refused to tour Pakistan since an attack by militants on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in 2009 killed six policemen and two civilians.
England pulled out of their Pakistan tour last year soon after New Zealand had abandoned their tour of the country over security concerns.