A country packed with cricket-fanatic fans was pushed into a sustained period of uncertainty when a terrorist attack forced international cricket out of Pakistan. Ten years later, top-flight cricketers are slowly trickling back in, but there is still some way to go before international cricket is completely reinstated in the country.

“The courtesy, the generosity, the hospitality, the warmth, the love of cricket is plainly obvious for anyone to see.” Last week, Warren Deutrom, CEO of Cricket Ireland, was at the Gaddafi Stadium in Pakistan, witnessing the Sri Lankan team’s visit to the country. Speaking to PCB Podcast later, he promised that Ireland would do their part in international cricket’s reintegration into Pakistan.

The last time Pakistan hosted a Test was in 2009. Their current captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed, hadn’t even debuted in Test cricket by then. For the last decade, Pakistan have been primarily playing their ‘home’ games in the UAE.

It was in 2009 that a horrific attack on the Sri Lankan team bus outside the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, forced the suspension of international cricket in the country. It halted operations on a flourishing game that has a huge following, cutting players from the country and its fans, and cutting cricket from a nation brimming with zealous followers of the game.

It started a long-drawn period of isolation for cricket in Pakistan, an untenable situation that only gradually started resolving by the second half of this decade.

Years later, top teams are slowly inching their way back into the country – the latest being Sri Lanka – as Pakistan continues to try and push past the events of 2009.

May 2015 – Zimbabwe: The cautious first steps

West Indies became the third Test playing team to visit Pakistan this decade, when they decided to tour the country for a short T20I series. Big names decided to step away once again, including the likes of Chris Gayle, Carlos Brathwaite and Jason Holder, but the show went on.

Pakistan completed a comprehensive sweep of the three-match series, winning each of the games with appreciable margins. And while there were questions asked about the strength of the West Indies team that visited, captain Sarfaraz Ahmed stood right behind his team and the crowd.

“We played better cricket and credit must be given to our side. It would be wrong to say that a ‘B side’,” he later said. “I don’t think teams have any excuses left for not coming to Pakistan anymore.”

February 2019 – West Indies Women: The minor classic

A tied three-match series, featuring a tied second game, represented the most closely-fought encounter in Pakistan for a decade. Featuring Pakistan Women’s 100th T20I, and Sana Mir’s 100th cap too, it was a proud moment for a proud country.

March 2019 – The PSL final stages: A greater slice of the action

The holding of nine games in Pakistan, even in the wake of heightened military tensions with India, represented an important step towards the stated aim of holding the entire Pakistan Super League in Pakistan. The closing of Lahore’s commercial airspace put paid to hopes of holding matches outside Karachi.

October 2019 – Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka returned yet again, this time for both ODIs and T20Is. The two sides were supposed to play Test cricket as well, in accordance with the World Test Championship, but the absence of big Sri Lankan names, who decided to give the series a miss, forced the boards to agree on a limited-overs only affair.

It wasn’t the first XI Sri Lanka would have hoped for, but they still managed to clinch a historic T20I series win in the country, after having been pipped in the ODI format. The arrangements got a further thumbs up from Sri Lanka’s interim coach Rumesh Ratnayake, who termed it as a message for other teams to engage in international cricket with Pakistan.

“To experience the hospitality of Pakistan is a great thing,” Ratnayake said last week. “I’ve experienced it after a long, long time, and if anything, it’s got even better. It was a lot of hard work for the whole system to have us here.