Cricket-PCB hopes top teams will follow Australia's Pakistan example

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Australia's tour of Pakistan should encourage major cricket nations to shed their apprehensions and visit the South Asian country, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Friday.

Top teams have largely steered clear of Pakistan since 2009, when a visiting Sri Lanka team was ambushed by gunmen in Lahore, in an attack blamed on Islamist militants.

The PCB spent much of the last decade trying to convince teams to visit Pakistan but suffered a setback when New Zealand and England abandoned their tours last year.

The PCB heaved a massive sigh of relief on Friday when Australia's first tour of Pakistan in 24 years got underway in Rawalpindi.

"This tour sends out a strong and a positive message to the entire world," PCB chief Faisal Hasnain told a news conference ahead of the start of the opening test.

"I'm confident that when the Australian team returns home, they will leave with fond memories, and they all hopefully will become ambassadors of Pakistan."

The importance of the series was not lost on the International Cricket Council (ICC) with chief executive Geoff Allardice attending the news conference.

"I've seen over the last four or five years the efforts the PCB and various authorities in Pakistan have made to bring elite cricket back to Pakistan and this is another step in that journey," Allardice said.

"It's a building block in terms of building that confidence for teams to come back and tour Pakistan."

Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) chief executive Todd Greenberg said Australian cricketers were "unbelievably excited".

"A lot of players were very anxious about this tour some months ago, but that anxiety has turned to real excitement," Greenberg said.

"We understand our contribution and