Wasim Akram says England owe Pakistan a reciprocal tour in 2022

[Abdullah719]

Wasim Akram on Sky Sports:

“You boys owe Pakistan cricket, and the country, a lot, with the boys coming over here.

“The English players were there for the Pakistan Super League in our team, Karachi Kings – Alex Hales and Chris Jordan. They loved it, they enjoyed it, they got looked after beautifully and I must give credit to the government of Pakistan, the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistan team and their staff.

“They’ve been here almost two and half months in the bio-secure. So if everything goes well, England should tour Pakistan. I promise you they’ll get looked after on and off the field there and every game will be a packed house.”

 

[Abdullah719]

Wasim Akram says England owe Pakistan a reciprocal tour in 2022

Wasim Akram says England owe Pakistan a reciprocal tour after Azhar Ali’s men travelled for a Test series amid the coronavirus pandemic.

England are scheduled to travel to Pakistan - a place they have not visited since 2005-06 over security concerns following the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore - in 2022.

Former Pakistan seamer Wasim says English players have enjoyed their time in the Pakistan Super League, the country’s franchise T20 tournament, and hopes a full international tour will follow.

Wasim told Sky Sports Cricket: “You boys owe Pakistan cricket, and the country, a lot, with the boys coming over here. They’ve been here almost two and half months in the bio-secure environment.

“So if everything goes well, England should tour Pakistan.

“I promise you they’ll get looked after on and off the field there and every game will be a packed house.

“The English players were there for the Pakistan Super League in our team, Karachi Kings - Alex Hales and Chris Jordan. They loved it, they enjoyed it, they got looked after beautifully, so the PSL is a step in the right direction.

“There is a lot more to see in Pakistan than cricket and players might be frustrated staying in the hotels all the time but hopefully next year we can let them go out to cinemas and shopping centres, while there is also a lot of history in Pakistan.”

Pakistan have not played India in a Test series since 2007 and Michael Atherton expects that wait to extend for a while yet, something he says is a “great shame” for Test cricket.

“I think the chances of India and Pakistan playing each other outside of ICC tournaments, even at a neutral venue, are minimal at the moment,” said Atherton, who visited Pakistan earlier this year to film the Sky Sports Cricket documentary Out of Exile.

“They seem as far apart as ever from playing each other which is a great shame because it would be the one thing that would give Test cricket a massive boost.

“Pakistan vs India games are unbelievable affairs as we saw at Emirates Old Trafford in the World Cup last year.

“I think there were around 600,000 applications for tickets for a ground that holds 25,000.”

https://www.skysports.com/cricket/n...ngland-owe-pakistan-a-reciprocal-tour-in-2022

 

[The Viper]

There should be no reason not to travel. English players played in PSL and they had no problems with it.

 

[Savak]

Awaiting for Mamoon to come and say England owe us Squat

 

[sweep_shot]

Things are better in Pakistan now. England should come.

 

[James]

I agree.

England should tour Pakistan in the next couple of years.

 

[Saj]

No guarantee that England will tour Pakistan. In fact I would say not much of a chance of it happening. It's pretty obvious nearer the time ECB will back out.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Respect Wasim bhai to have the balls to say it. Something many fissile Pakistanis wouldn't say. People who have accepted a life of mediocrity and of being subservient.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

This kind of statements are counter-productive. You can never force someone to do something. Rather statements like these send the wrong message.

I think PCB has done alot to try to convince England to come. Whether its the heavy representation of English players in the PSL, the Sky Sports documentary or doing this tour during COVID-19. I feel many people in England; whether its the players, commentators like Athers or guys who are involved in their coaching set-up like Andy Flower, know that it is safe to come to Pakistan. And perceptions have been changed to a great extent. If England still doesn't want to send their team than that's on them. It certainly would be no fault of the PCB, which has done everything within its power to make international cricket possible.

 

[pratiktc]

Don't think Eng/Aus will be visiting subcontinent for quite a while now.

 

[Robert]

There should be no reason not to travel. English players played in PSL and they had no problems with it.

They are individuals.

ECB will do as the Foreign Office advises.

 

[TeamPak95]

An England tour of Pakistan would be amazing. I have fond memories of the 2006 tour.

 

[angrypathan]

Diplomacy clearly not Wasim's forte.

 

[offstump]

I think now may be the perfect time to get England over.. with a bio secure environment they would mostly be holed up in the hotel or allowed out for specific activities only.. this works in Pakistan’s favour as they could plan a secure itinerary with specific things to do in their off time like golfing, sight seeing etc.

 

[Pacy with wisdom]

Pakistan wont play any home serious in the UAE from now on. It will be all on its home turf, InshaAllah.
I find it surprising to see so many posters above thinking otherwise.

We have been incident free for a good 2, 3 years now and our perception is changing by the day.
The winds have changed so stop bring pessimistic.
England will definitely come. Any side who refuses will not be hosted at all. I expect the PCB to have a principled stance on this.

 

[Last Monetarist]

All it takes for these best-laid schemes of mice and men to go awry is an attack or two a few months before the scheduled tour. It's too premature to be making such pompous statements.

 

[Mamoon]

Awaiting for Mamoon to come and say England owe us Squat

Why did we tour England?

 

[deep82]

Pakistan wont play any home serious in the UAE from now on. It will be all on its home turf, InshaAllah.
I find it surprising to see so many posters above thinking otherwise.

We have been incident free for a good 2, 3 years now and our perception is changing by the day.
The winds have changed so stop bring pessimistic.
England will definitely come. Any side who refuses will not be hosted at all. I expect the PCB to have a principled stance on this.

Its fairly easy to get Srilanka, Bangladesh or Windies in Pakistan. Real challenge is in bringing SENA. PCB can start with South Africa and not be too rigid against Eng, Aus or NZ. Eventually they will come but if you use try using muscle power then it will be goodbye for next 5 years atleast.

 

[Pacy with wisdom]

Its fairly easy to get Srilanka, Bangladesh or Windies in Pakistan. Real challenge is in bringing SENA. PCB can start with South Africa and not be too rigid against Eng, Aus or NZ. Eventually they will come but if you use try using muscle power then it will be goodbye for next 5 years atleast.

South africa are a sure shot. No doubt about them.
Even England will be ready, given how many of their first team players feature in the PSL And this tour during a pandemic, no matter how much guys like Mamoon underplay its impact, will generate a reasonable amount of goodwill, which might just make them to take the plunge if there is any doubt somewhere.
The only team that may once again be unwilling is Australia. They are pretty rigid and have always been like that.

 

[Pacy with wisdom]

All it takes for these best-laid schemes of mice and men to go awry is an attack or two a few months before the scheduled tour. It's too premature to be making such pompous statements.

There haven't been any attacks for a good while and I dont expect them to occur again.
That dark phase of Pakistan's history is long over. It is only going to get better from here onwards InshaAllah.
Embrace the change.

 

[Last Monetarist]

There haven't been any attacks for a good while and I dont expect them to occur again.
That dark phase of Pakistan's history is long over. It is only going to get better from here onwards InshaAllah.
Embrace the change.

No need to be complacent. Always pays to put one's head down and keep working hard. The outcome will take care of itself.

 

[Thephenom]

Every time a country refuses to tour Pakistan PCB should sue each country for loss of broadcast money, we’ve lost so much as it is!

 

[therealAB]

The strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they must