Published: Mar 24, 2015, 10:45 AM (IST)
Edited: Mar 24, 2015, 10:45 AM (IST)
Since the attack on the Sri Lankan team bus back in 2009, no team has toured Pakistan for any bilateral series and even the International Cricket Council (ICC) has not awarded any tournament to the country. For a passionate cricket fanatic country, it is a big loss. But security of players is paramount; no one wants to see cricket players being attacked like what happened with Sri Lanka in Lahore.
Now out of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, Pakistan coach Waqar Younis, on Tuesday said that cricket may die in Pakistan if opposition teams continue to refuse to tour the country. The Pakistan fans have only two resorts to watch the games, either watch it on television or travel down to United Arab Emirates, where they play their home matches.
“The biggest hurt is that we are not able to stage international matches. I fear the game might die out as we lack talent at junior level and it’s tough to indulge kids in cricket. It’s a very important aspect, we have to bring international cricket back and the government has to help in this regard,” said Waqar to AFP.
Last year, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) managed to bring minnows Kenya for a short one-day series and are currently negotiating with Zimbabwe for a visit in May 2015. The quarter-final ouster from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 means Pakistan has a lot of hard work to do, especially with the country’s cricket set-up and infrastructure believes Waqar.
“If we want to save Pakistan cricket we have to lift our domestic game because there was a big difference in standards at the World Cup. We were well behind other teams. We can’t delay it, we need power-hitters like there are in other teams and players who can score 300-plus runs. Cricket is changing fast and we have to keep pace with that, if not we will be left far behind,” said the fast bowler.
Pakistan have always produced good bowlers but it is batting, an area they have suffered and even in the World Cup, their batters let them down.
“Bowling has never been our problem. I think we should feel proud of our bowling at the World Cup. But it’s the batting where we have been struggling for a long time now and after Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan — whenever he quits — we will have a big vacuum,” said the 43-year-old.
Waqar said Pakistan did miss Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez, the two key spinners in the World Cup, “Just before the World Cup, the International Cricket Council launched a crackdown and because of that we lost Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez. But now is the time we should lift ourselves because cricket has been our pride,” concluded Waqar.
