Butt expects tours to Pakistan in 'six to nine months'

A week after terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, has said that he expects teams to tour Pakistan in "six to nine months". He was also confident that Pakistan would remain a co-host of the 2011 World Cup.

"I'd expect tours to start again as soon as possible. I'd give it six to nine months," Butt told BBC Radio 5 Live. "I definitely think that we will stage part of the World Cup in 2011."

Butt, however, said that he would expect the Pakistan government to guarantee visiting teams' security. "I would want us to get security to a level that would be a guarantee from my government that no such incident like this could happen again, or I will not invite anybody," he said.

"Once I have this assurance I may then invite people to come here. But this can happen anywhere. I cannot give that guarantee, but my government can. If they cannot then we will not have cricket in Pakistan at all."

ICC president David Morgan had said earlier that "it would seem the level of security was not as expected" at the time of the terrorist attack. The security measures were also criticised by the match referee Chris Broad and umpire Simon Taufel who were among those attacked.