Interior Minister and Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board Mohsin Naqvi have crippled any further assistance or cooperation with Saudi Arabia on cricket promotion and building stadiums in the country. This was after a meeting with SACF Chairman Prince Saud bin Mishal Al Saud, held last week in Riyadh. Naqvi proposed to the kingdom on development plans in cricket as well as building new stadiums. He suggested an exchange for players where new Saudi players can come to Pakistan for training instead.
“We are fully committed to supporting Saudi Arabia in all their cricket development and stadium build plans. For every Pakistani, Saudi Arabia is like a second home, so we rejoice at this partnership,” he said.
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Prince Saud further said that he is very much looking forward to strengthening mutual collaboration in cricket and mentioned some progress Saudi Arabia made such as winning the Asian Cricket Council Challenge Cup and now having a ramped-up potential base of approximately 18,000 cricketers.
Naqvi also invited Prince Saud to Pakistan to see the matches of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. He has visited King Fahd Security College, Riyadh, where he appreciated advanced educational standards laid down in the college and its strategic approach to modern-day security challenges. Options for exchange programs were discussed to enhance cooperation on security matters between the two countries.
Visits to the Saudi Directorate of Passports were also part of Naqvi’s itinerary. He praised the modern passport system in Saudi Arabia while discussing measures that can be taken to upgrade passport security as well as anti-fraud and defraud mechanisms in Pakistan. Plans for a call center in Pakistan similar to the one in Saudi Arabia were also announced.
So sports and security can highlight the importance of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.