Former spinner Mushtaq Ahmed believes the England cricketer would happily tour Pakistan and says his country deserved better to travel to the other side at the height of the pandemic.
Ahmed, who had a foothold in both camps after serving as England’s spin-bowling coach in 2009-2015, has been criticized by English cricket chiefs for controversially canceling his men’s and women’s teams tour to cricket-crazy Pakistan the following month. After expressed his disappointment to AFP.
The first visit by England’s men’s side to Pakistan since 2005 was to last only four days with two Twenty20 matches in Rawalpindi.
But the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last week cited “growing concerns about field travel” after New Zealand abandoned a tour of Pakistan minutes before the start of the first one-day international in Rawalpindi, security warnings referring to .
The ECB’s decision was met with fury in Pakistan, which only went up a notch after the Daily Mail newspaper reported that England players had not been consulted.
The 51-year-old Ahmed said of the England players, “I think from the experience of playing in England and coaching England for six years, I think people are very open-minded and they know the conditions of the world.”
“I know him – I played with a lot of cricketers, I coached him for six years, I played (English) county cricket,” he said.
“I think (K) players will definitely come now,” he said, adding that several England players had participated in the Pakistan Super League in recent seasons.
Ahmed said Pakistan deserved better after touring England last year.
Pakistan traveled to a time when the Covid-19 infection rate in Britain was among the highest in the world for a three-match Test and T20I series, which saved the ECB millions in television rights deals.
Ahmed said, “If (a) the team can travel in a corona (virus) situation when people were dying (in the UK) and Pakistan went to England and played a series, they should have accepted that and they should have respected it. should do.”
to be a hero
Ahmed, who played 52 Tests, 144 one-day internationals and was a member of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning team, said other cricket tours and tournaments have progressed to countries where terrorist attacks took place.
However, a deadly 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore made Pakistan a no-go destination for international teams.
In 2012 and 2015 Pakistan hosted England in the United Arab Emirates, which has staged most of its “home” games since the attack.
Ahmed said playing away from Pakistan was “very difficult” for the team.
“I’m saying this because heroes become heroes when they play in front of their home audience and that’s when you start believing that you can represent your country – you deserve that platform,” he said.
“When you play in Pakistan, all I remember is that I felt a different body language and had a different mindset,” he said.
“I used to think that when you take a wicket, take a wonderful catch, the kind of welcome that is received from the people of Pakistan (wonderful).
“When you hit a six, the way the crowd used to shout, you become a hero.”
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