PESHAWAR: For the past three years, teenager Muhammad Numan has traveled to Lahore, Multan and Karachi to cheer on Peshawar Zalmi at Pakistan Super League (PSL) games while harboring the dream that his hometown of Peshawar, marred by militant violence for decades, would someday be able to host its regional team.

The Zalmi fan’s hopes were dashed once again in June last year when then Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ramiz Raja declared that Peshawar’s Arbab Niaz Stadium did not yet have security clearance, nor was it adequately upgraded, to host games in the ongoing PSL 2023.

“We really hope that matches happen in Peshawar so we can watch them here but it doesn’t happen,” 18-year-old Numan told Arab News. “It is difficult to go every year [to another city] just for a cricket match but I hope I can go see a match in Karachi again this year.”

Despite Zalmi representing the sixth most populous city in the country, which is also the capital of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province bordering Afghanistan, Peshawar has not hosted a single PSL match since the tournament was inaugurated in 2016. 

The first two editions of the tournament were held in the United Arab Emirates due to potential security threats, but as the law and order situation in the country improved, games have been played in Karachi and Lahore since 2018, and in Multan and Rawalpindi since 2020, leading to expectations that PSL games would also be played in the Arbab Niaz Stadium in Peshawar this year.

However, this could not happen due to renovation work and assorted logistical issues, and now, with militant attacks on the rise in the country since November last year, many fans wonder when Peshawar will host its beloved namesake team.

“The matches of PSL are being played in different cities of Pakistan, like Multan, Karachi and Lahore. Peshawar has its own franchise which represents the city, therefore, matches of PSL should also be held here,” Zalmi supporter Saud Faisal, a computer sciences student at the University of Peshawar, told Arab News.

Muhammad Wasif, another student at the university, echoed the sentiments: “This is our right, that PSL should be played in [our] city.”

Among the worst attacks in Peshawar were twin suicide bombings in 2013 at the All Saints Church that killed scores of worshippers and a Taliban attack on a army-run school in 2014 in which 134 children were killed. And last month, a suicide bomber reached a mosque inside a highly fortified compound, killing over 100 people, most of them police officers.

But before the recent mosque bombing, Peshawar enjoyed relative calm for many years after several Pakistani military offensives in the country’s northwestern tribal areas. However, the situation has become more tense since November last year when the most active militant group in the area, the Pakistani Taliban, also called the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), called off a fragile truce with the government and vowed to double down on attacks.

Still, the residents of Peshawar say the city has a lot more to offer — if given an opportunity.

Peshawar has a rich history dating back to Mughal times, and was once renowned as a liberal, cultural center. Even today, it is famous for its bazaars and churches and is known as the “city of flowers” because of the many gardens built during the Mughal era.

As Wasif the university student put it, if PSL matches were played in Peshawar, the world would not just be watching cricket but also be able to witness “real Pashtun culture.”

Another cricket enthusiast and undergraduate student, Intekhab Alam, also counted other benefits of hosting an internationally renowned tournament: “Up-and-coming cricketers will get to see foreign players in their city, representing the team they support. It will be motivating for them.”

Software engineer Muhammad Faizan Sirang concurred:

“Young cricketers in academies wish to meet their favorite players, get advice from them, get inspiration from them.”

Ishfaq Ahmad, Assistant Director at the Directorate General of Sports Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said the reason Peshawar did not host PSL this year was because “developmental work” was still ongoing at the Arbaz Niaz Stadium, including the addition of floodlights, a digital scoreboard and a state-of-the-art pavilion, the construction of a hotel near the stadium for players and the stadium’s capacity being increased from 14,000 to 30,000 seats.

“The expected date for the completion of work in Arbab Niaz Stadium was June 2022, but unfortunately, due to some limitations and a lot of workload, the project couldn’t be completed in the prescribed time.”

The previous provincial government had approved the feasibility report and a budget of Rs1.9 billion for the stadium’s infrastructure upgrade, Ahmad said.

“The stadium was not up to the standard of the International Cricket Council [this year],” the assistant director added. “But everything will be completed in the next few months and the city can host PSL matches next year.”