A suicide attack killed two people near the Lahore stadium where a Pakistan-Zimbabwe match was underway, but the Pakistani authorities blanked out the news initially.
The Zimbabwe tour is the first by an international cricket team since the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers.
The blast took place near Lahore's Gaddafi stadium on Friday night, but Pakistani authorities initially called it a "power transformer blast" to ensure the match was not affected, Hindustan Times has reported.
Information minister Pervaiz Rashid later told the media that a suicide attack had taken place near the Lahore stadium and that a police officer had also lost his life.
He said the news was initially blanked out to ensure there was no panic among the 20,000 spectators, which could have caused a stampede.
According to Pakistan's Geo News, the police officer died while stopping the suicide bomber from entering the stadium.
"An attempt to attack the Gaddafi Stadium was foiled by the gallantry of a police official, who lost his life while trying to stop the attacker near Kalma Chowk," Rashid told Geo News.
"The Pakistan Broadcasters Association in conjunction with the Ministry of Information had earlier decided to not report the incident in order to responsibly avoid any untoward incident such as a stampede during the match at the stadium", the paper reported.
