Misbah-ul-Haq exhibits the shabby cricket infrastructure in Pakistan, says players deserve better

His country has just seen a former World Cup-winning captain becoming its prime minister. The expectations are natural high about the ground realities changing for the better in the reign of the cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan. But former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has come out with some shocking realities of his country’s domestic cricket and urged officials to improve them.

Misbah, one of Pakistan’s most prolific captains who retired from international cricket last year at the age of 43, recently posted a video of a shabby dressing room in a premier cricketing venue in Lahore and said Pakistani players deserved a better infrastructure.

The video is of the dressing room of Lahore City Cricket Association Ground located opposite to the famed Gaddafi Stadium. It shows dirty and broken state of the dressing room and its toilet, leaving Misbah disappointed. There is also a bicycle parked inside the dressing room.

It’s a dressing room, not a store room

He tweets the 45-second video saying: “This is not a storeroom. This is LCCA ground’s dressing room currently hosting first class match between SNGPL & Lahore Whites. Six test players are playing in this match. I think players deserve better than this. Outfield and pitch is also not encouraging for cricket.”

Misbah also mentioned that there was only one fan in the room which made it very inconvenient for the players. The ground was playing host to a match between Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and Lahore Whites and as many as six Test players featured in the game.

The veteran who played 75 Tests and 162 ODIs for Pakistan, requested the Pakistan Cricket Board to take apt action over the lack of facilities provided to those sweating it out there.

Complaints against poor infrastructure are not new in Pakistan cricket. Even the legendary Imran Khan, who gave the country their only World Cup in cricket in 1992, have spoken over their domestic cricket and suggested ways to make it better so that it can continue to reap benefits on international stage.

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