Aus fan Luke Gillian receives warm welcome in Pakistan

KARACHI: When Australian cricket fan Luke Gillian last visited Pakistan in 1998, home supporters threw stones at him when he ventured out in public.

These days everyone wants a selfie.

Luke Gillian is back in Pakistan with a small troupe of Australian super fans, dubbed the “Fanatics”, on their first tour of the country in nearly a quarter of a century — and has blown away by the welcome they have received.

Australia for 24 years, along with many international teams, declined to tour Pakistan on security grounds.

The situation became worse after a fatal terror attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009. After which Pakistan had to play “home” games abroad for a decade, mostly in the United Arab Emirates.

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But the cricket-mad nation is lapping up the current tour by the world’s top-ranked Test team. Which will see the three-Test series go to a decider in Lahore next week after draws in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

“It perceived to be too dangerous to go outside,” Gillian said of his visit on Australia’s last tour in 1998.

“When I did get outside there were large groups of people walking in the streets and I had rocks thrown at me.”

Nearly a quarter of a century later, attitudes have changed.

“I reckon, in Rawalpindi, 500 photographs taken of me every day, easily,” the 51-year-old from Victoria told AFP.