ISLAMABAD: Australia’s Test vice captain Steve Smith has expressed satisfaction over security arrangements for the Australian cricket side, which is on its first tour of Pakistan in 24 years, saying the team was feeling “incredibly safe.”

Top teams have shunned Pakistan since gunmen attacked a visiting Sri Lanka team in Lahore in 2009 and a heavy security dragnet has been thrown around Australia’s six-week tour beginning with the first test in Rawalpindi on Mar. 4.

Australia pulled out of a tour five years earlier after a suicide blast at a Lahore church. They last played in Pakistan in 1998, winning a three-Test series 1-0 and blanking the hosts in the three one-day internationals.

Smith’s comments on Monday came after reports of online “threats” directed at the visiting team that arrived in Pakistan last Sunday. Pakistan has said the threats are fake and could be traced back to accounts operated from arch-rival India.

“We are aware of social media and you know the unfortunate events that can occur on platforms across social media,” Smith said. “So, we got lot of people working here with us, we trust our security and everyone involved and we are feeling incredibly safe in Pakistan and we will be guarded by our security and the people we trust around us.”

Australia will play three Tests, three one-day internationals, and one Twenty20 match before leaving Pakistan on April 6.

Having been forced to play their home games abroad – mainly in the United Arab Emirates – Pakistan appeared to have reassured international cricket authorities last year, with both New Zealand and England scheduled to tour.

But the Black Caps hastily departed in September just minutes before their first match was due to start, citing security fears. England postponed tours by their men’s and women’s teams soon after.

“The squad will be given ‘head of state-level security’,” a spokesman for Pakistan’s interior ministry told the AFP news agency last week, speaking about the Australian team. “Such arrangements are only made for high-level foreign delegations, [and] the president and prime minister of Pakistan.”

Roads will be blocked off when the Australians make the 15km (9-mile) commute, with their team bus shadowed by army helicopters.

Snipers will be positioned on buildings surrounding the stadium, while nearby shops and offices have been ordered to close on match days, the interior ministry said.

Similar arrangements will be in place for matches in Karachi and Lahore.