islamabad the return of englands cricket team to pakistan next year their first visit since a deadly attack on sri lankas team is a vote of confidence in the countrys improved security but challenges remain analysts saycricketobsessed pakistan spent a decade in international sporting isolation after gunmen targeted the sri lankan team bus in 2009 in lahore during a test series killing eight people and wounding several players and officialsthe assault marked another dark chapter in pakistans long battle with militancy and extremism that has led to tens of thousands of deaths and ruined the countrys international imagebut a yearslong army clampdown has seen steady improvements in pakistans security situation and several nations have softened travel advisories as a resultperceptions of pakistan need to catch up with the reality and things have changed here a lot in the last five years christian turner the british high commissioner to pakistan told britains sky newswe assess a huge decrease an 80 percent decrease in security incidents since about 2015 i think pakistan deserves credit for thatengland will play two twenty20 internationals in karachi on october 14 and 15 in their first visit to pakistan since 2005the announcement follows pakistans trip to england over the summer when they played tests and t20s despite britain being one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemicpakistan one of international crickets financially poorer leading sides thus helped spare england one of the wealthiest an estimated 280 million 366 million loss if all the ecbs scheduled matches were wiped outpakistan have recently hosted zimbabwe the west indies sri lanka and a world xi several english players have also played in pakistans twenty20 leaguesecurity analyst qamar cheema said such events can improve pakistans image overseasafter making colossal gains against extremism and radicalisation pakistan wants the world to look at it as a normal country cheema told afppakistans security environment is now conducive for international sports the military and law enforcement agencies have done enough he addedbut observers warn that pakistan is not tackling the root causes of religious extremism and militancy and armed groups retain the ability to carry out attacks including in urban areasroom for ideologically motivated individual attacks always remains cheema notedstill officials hope major sporting events will help shift an international perception of pakistan from terrorism to tourism destination a phrase prime minister imran khans political party has usedit is a big achievement for the security apparatus of pakistan the more sports come to a country the more the name of that country goes out internationally security analyst imtiaz gul told afplast year islamabad introduced an electronic visa system making it easier for visitors to come and british airways announced its return to pakistan after more than a decade virgin atlantic will launch flights from britain to pakistan in decemberpakistan greets foreign teams with presidentiallevel security with elite commandos providing protection for playerssquads travel in heavily armed convoys with roads to venues sealed off creating a headache for commuters and