Taking a dig at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s unwillingness to resume bilateral ties, Shaharyar Khan – Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) outgoing chief – has said that India are scared of facing Pakistan after losing in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy.
The Men in Blue had defeated the Men in Green by 124 runs in the tournament-opener but were totally outplayed by Sarfraz Ahmed & Co. in the title-decider, losing the match by a whopping margin of 180 runs. That was Pakistan’s first win against India in the ICC events since the 2009 Champion Trophy but Shaharyar Khan feels that India are scared to face his country.
“After our win, we challenge India to come and play bilateral cricket with us. They don’t play us, they are scared of our team. They say we’ll play you in ICC matches but they won’t play us otherwise,” Khan was quoted as saying during the felicitation ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad by pakpassion.net.
‘Resumption of international cricket in Pakistan’
Shaharyar Khan further said that the historic Champions Trophy win would pave the way for the resumption of international cricket in Pakistan. Barring Zimbabwe in 2015, no Test team had visited Pakistan since 2009 when there was an attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team bus in Lahore but the 83-year old PCB chief is hopeful that more teams would now look to play against Pakistan.
“After this win, every team will want to play us. They should now come to Pakistan, there is complete security. God-willing, teams will start coming,” said Shaharyar. “We are in negotiations with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and West Indies. They can send their teams first for a short tour, maybe for just T20Is.”
“We need to build on this victory. It’s not enough, we need to go a lot further,” he added.
BCCI and PCB, meanwhile, had signed MoUs in 2014 for six bilateral series to be played between 2015 and 2023 with Pakistan to host four of them after getting the clearance from the government.
However, the MoU has not been implemented due to escalating political tensions between the two neighbours. The arch-rivals have not played in a bilateral Test series since 2007 when Pakistan visited India for three Tests and five One-Day Internationals. They played a short series of three ODIs and two T20s in India in December 2012 but otherwise, both have faced each other only in ICC events or Asia Cup.