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Dubai: International cricket returned to Pakistan after an eight-year-gap with World XI taking on Pakistan in the first match of the three-match Independence Cup Twenty20 series before a packed Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The significance of the series is not lost on the international cricketing community, as the World XI skipper Faf Du Plessis summed up that the “World XI’s visit as much more than a cricket tour.”
All the World XI players, who assembled at the Dubai International stadium for a training session on Sunday before flying out to Lahore, were determined to see that their mission to Pakistan is a success. West Indies’s two-time World T20 Cup wining captain Darren Sammy said: “If we could be part of history, with the greater purpose of helping the friends in Pakistan see cricket again, it would be a wonderful thing,” said Sammy.
Ben Cutting, the young and promising Australia cricketer, feels that by going to Pakistan with the World XI team, he can tell his kids that he helped bringing back cricket to Pakistan. It is with this sense of positivity that the World XI players are in Lahore.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has backed the event bestowing international status on the series. Shashank Manohar, the ICC chairman, in a statement to the ICC website remarked: “This is a good day for world cricket as the PCB hosts a World XI in Lahore for three T20 International games. It has been a long and tough journey as the PCB, Pakistan players and fans have been starved of the opportunity to stage, play and watch international cricket in their own country. I am hopeful that today marks the start of the safe and steady return of international cricket to Pakistan.”
South African Imran Tahir, who spearheads the World XI’s spin attack and has his roots in Pakistan, with even his family members in Lahore, said: “I was probably the first one to be asked to play for the World XI in Pakistan and I said I’d love to go.”
Incidentally, the series features three of the top five bowlers in the ICC T20 International players ranking for bowlers like Pakistan’s Imad Wasim , Tahir and West Indies’ Samuel Badree. Wasim is at a career-best 780 points while Tahir and Badree are in the second and fifth places, respectively. They will be eyeing this series to move up the rankings. Even World XI skipper Du Plessis is ranked eighth among the best Twenty20 batsmen.
Pakistan’s young leg spinner Shahdab Khan was excited on return of international cricket and said now he would be able to perform in front of his own people. “It was my earnest desire to play in front of my own people. I will try my best to deliver against the world’s top players in the Independence Cup,” he said.
By K.R. Nayar Chief Cricket Writer Gulf News 2017. All rights reserved.
All the World XI players, who assembled at the Dubai International stadium for a training session on Sunday before flying out to Lahore, were determined to see that their mission to Pakistan is a success. West Indies’s two-time World T20 Cup wining captain Darren Sammy said: “If we could be part of history, with the greater purpose of helping the friends in Pakistan see cricket again, it would be a wonderful thing,” said Sammy.
Ben Cutting, the young and promising Australia cricketer, feels that by going to Pakistan with the World XI team, he can tell his kids that he helped bringing back cricket to Pakistan. It is with this sense of positivity that the World XI players are in Lahore.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has backed the event bestowing international status on the series. Shashank Manohar, the ICC chairman, in a statement to the ICC website remarked: “This is a good day for world cricket as the PCB hosts a World XI in Lahore for three T20 International games. It has been a long and tough journey as the PCB, Pakistan players and fans have been starved of the opportunity to stage, play and watch international cricket in their own country. I am hopeful that today marks the start of the safe and steady return of international cricket to Pakistan.”
South African Imran Tahir, who spearheads the World XI’s spin attack and has his roots in Pakistan, with even his family members in Lahore, said: “I was probably the first one to be asked to play for the World XI in Pakistan and I said I’d love to go.”
Incidentally, the series features three of the top five bowlers in the ICC T20 International players ranking for bowlers like Pakistan’s Imad Wasim , Tahir and West Indies’ Samuel Badree. Wasim is at a career-best 780 points while Tahir and Badree are in the second and fifth places, respectively. They will be eyeing this series to move up the rankings. Even World XI skipper Du Plessis is ranked eighth among the best Twenty20 batsmen.
Pakistan’s young leg spinner Shahdab Khan was excited on return of international cricket and said now he would be able to perform in front of his own people. “It was my earnest desire to play in front of my own people. I will try my best to deliver against the world’s top players in the Independence Cup,” he said.
By K.R. Nayar Chief Cricket Writer Gulf News 2017. All rights reserved.
