KARACHI: Pakistan`s cricket chief on Tuesday welcomed an announcement of a possible World XI tour to his country, saying he hoped it would revive international cricket in the insurgency-hit nation.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) welcomes the announcement by Giles Clarke of the intention to send an ICC World XI to play in Pakistan," a PCB statement quoted its chairman, Ijaz Butt, as saying.

International cricket came to abrupt end in Pakistan in March last year, after a terror attack on the touring Sri Lankan team in Lahore, leading to huge financial losses for the PCB.

Writing in the September issue The Wisden Cricketer, Clarke, the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, called for a return of international cricket to Pakistan and said a World XI would tour there "in due course."

Butt said such tour would go a long way towards reviving international cricket in Pakistan.

"I am very grateful to Clarke, who is a dear friend of Pakistan, for pursuing our case and working tirelessly in bringing international cricket back to Pakistan," Butt said.

After the Lahore attack, in which eight people were killed and which wounded eight members of the Sri Lanka squad, the International Cricket Council (ICC) stripped Pakistan of its share of hosting matches in the 2011 World Cup.

The attack also led to the cancellation of international tours to Pakistan but the ICC formed a special task force, headed by Clarke, to find ways of reviving them.

"World cricket must keep giving Pakistan cricket the chance to fund itself and move forward, to do something for the spectator in Pakistan," Clarke wrote in The Wisden Cricketer published Tuesday.

"The security challenges are enormous but we cannot allow the terrorists to win. They must lose by an innings -- repeatedly. So world cricket must go back and play in Pakistan.

"I do not think it will be possible for individual national teams to tour yet. But with determination and courage, an ICC World XI in due course will go and play against Pakistan in her great cities and there will be a marvellous atmosphere."

Pakistan, which is currently touring England, is due to play two Tests, two Twenty20 and five one-days against South Africa in October-November in the United Arab Emirates.

Ehshan Mani, a former ICC president and adviser to the PCB, also welcomed the prospect of a World XI tour to Pakistan, telling AFP: "I hope this World XI tour happens sooner than later."

BDST: 1925HRS, August 17, 2010