World cricket is incomplete without Pakistan: Zaheer Abbas

Former Pakistan cricketer Zaheer Abbas batted for the return of cricket to Pakistan. International cricket in Pakistan has been plagued ever since the terrorist attack on Sri Lankan team in 2009. No team has traveled Pakistan since then for Test series. Zimbabwe is the only country to have toured Pakistan since then, albeit for a short series. Abbas feels for the betterment of the game, the involvement of Pakistan home matches is necessary.

A hopeful Zaheer Abbas quoted that he expects international cricket to return to Pakistan in next couple of years. Abbas served as the ICC President as well. He added that during his tenure as the ICC President, he tried his best to discuss this issue but in vain. He quoted, “I do not want to predict a time frame of international teams touring Pakistan, but I do hope over the next 2-3 years we could see them playing back in Pakistan. When I used to sit on international forums as ICC president I used to talk a lot about it (cricket in Pakistan), but people didn’t want to come due to their security concerns.”

Citing the impact of having UAE as their home ground, Abbas said that the less crowds is an evidence of it. Only a handful of spectators were seen when Pakistan played their historic first-ever day-night Test in UAE last month. “At the moment our main grounds are in UAE, but you must have noticed in Test cricket only handful of people watched matches and you can realize how important it is to revive cricket back home,” Abbas pointed out.

He further added that the hosting of matches in UAE has taken a financial toll on the board as well. “We play on the other side of the world and host international teams for months, financially it also hurts us. Cricket grounds (in UAE) demand so much money that I can’t tell. I just pray that there’s peace in Pakistan and foreign teams themselves say that they wanted to play in Pakistan,” reflected Zaheer Abbas.

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The former batsman who scored 100 centuries in First Class cricket also mentioned that he is proud of the way Pakistan has been playing. Becoming the number one team in Tests despite not having any ‘home’ matches is commendable. “There’s no international cricket in Pakistan and despite that we became No. 1 and now No. 2. It clearly shows how much depth we have in our Test team,” he said.

Abbas further insisted that the current cricket setup in the country is good. However, it would only be better if a cricketer heads it in future. “I don’t want to criticise the present setup, they have done lots of good things but to me a sportsman of that particular game should be the head of it,” Abbas remarked.

Lastly, he conceded that the Pakistan cricket is an integral part of the world cricket. “Pakistan has a very strong team and it is very important member of ICC. Without Pakistan cricket, the world of cricket is not complete. The government and people also want the cricket to come back to Pakistan,” quoted the former cricketer.