Miandad calls for stringent security arrangements at Lahore's Gadaffi Stadium

Lahore, Jun 8 (ANI): Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director general Javed Miandad has called for stringent security arrangements at the Gadaffi Stadium to make it a safe venue for staging international cricket in the near future.

"There is dire need to beef up security measures at the world's famous historic arena as the best security arrangements will send a positive message to the world," he told reporters at Gadaffi Stadium here on Thursday.

Miandad was visiting the training camp of the Pakistan Under-19 team. He said politics should not be mixed with sports as such an act would harm the interest of cricket in Pakistan, The Daily Times reports.

"The PCB is doing its best to improve the security of its stadiums in the country and the prime objective of building an outer wall of Gadaffi Stadium aims at strengthening the security arrangements and to provide extra protection to the arena.

"And there is no need to jeopardise such efforts because it will send a negative message to the world regarding state of cricket in Pakistan," he maintained.

Miandad said the Gadaffi Stadium was among the best cricket arenas and all cricket stars of the world including himself had the honour of playing at this ground.

"The PCB is taking every measure as per the laid down procedure of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to better security arrangements at its venues and through these acts we can assure the cricket playing countries that we are in a much better position to host international cricket in Pakistan." Miandad said.

"Its very unfortunate that the Punjab government is not understanding the situation of security of the players which should be of paramount importance. Such a step would damage the reputation of the Punjab government," he stated. (ANI)