The security team will visit Karachi on Dec. 26.

The five member security team is arriving here and will tour Karachi on Dec. 26.

Besides Karachi, the next important venue is Peshawar, where the team will visit after Karachi.

But (when) Saddam changed his mind and said he couldn't be held responsible for security, the pope canceled the visit.

It wasn't an easy visit to arrange, and it took some time to make some practical arrangements to ensure security conditions. We're happy it took place today. We're satisfied with that. The conditions under which we visited were fully satisfactory.

Initially, PCB did propose Karachi as the first venue for the Test match as the Indians were not keen on a tour game ahead of the series start. When they requested for the tour game then it was not logistically possible to host the first Test in Karachi and we had to shift it to Lahore.