Highlight
England’s white-ball tour of Pakistan was canceled earlier this month.
Ahmed was upset that England had canceled its planned visit to Pakistan.
Additionally, the English women’s team’s Pakistan tour has been canceled.
An ex-England spinner believes that the English cricket team would welcome a trip to Pakistan and feels that his country deserved more when they visited the other side during peak flu season.
English cricketers would be happy to tour Pakistan, according to former spinner Mushtaq Ahmed, and his country deserved better treatment after traveling the other way during the height of the pandemic. Ahmed, who served as England’s spin-bowling coach from 2009 to 2015, expressed his disappointment to AFP after English cricket chiefs canceled their men’s and women’s teams’ tours to cricket-crazy Pakistan next month on controversial grounds. After a four-year absence, the England men’s team returned to Pakistan for the first time since 2005 for just two Twenty20 matches in Rawalpindi.
Even though New Zealand canceled its tour of Pakistan minutes before the start of the first one-day international in Rawalpindi due to a security alert, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) last week cited “increasing concerns about travel to the region.”.
It wasn’t long after the Daily Mail revealed that the England players hadn’t been consulted before the ECB’s decision that the outrage in Pakistan reached new heights.
Ahmed, 51, said of English players, “I think from my experience, playing in England and also coaching England for six years, I think the guys are very open-minded and they know the circumstances of the world.
It’s easy for me to say that because I’ve played with them, coached them for six years, and also played (English) county cricket.”
According to him, “I think (players) will definitely come now,” because several England players have recently appeared in the Pakistan Super League.
After Pakistan’s 2017 tour of England, Ahmed felt the country deserved more.
For a three-match Test and T20 series against England, Pakistan traveled to a time when infection rates of the COVID-19 virus were among the highest in the world, saving the ECB millions in television rights deals.
There should have been an acknowledgment and respect for Pakistan’s decision to travel to England during a time when people were dying in Britain as a result of the corona (virus).
Achieving the Status of Superhero
In countries where there had been terror attacks, other cricket tours and tournaments had gone on, said Ahmed, who played 52 Tests and 144 one-day internationals and was a member of Pakistan’s World Cup-winning team in 1992.
A deadly attack in Lahore in 2009 on the Sri Lankan team bus changed the country’s reputation and made it impossible for international teams to play in Pakistan once again.
Historically, the UAE has hosted Pakistan’s home matches since the 9/11 attacks on two separate occasions, in 2012 and 2015.
When asked how it was for the team, Ahmed said it was “very difficult” to play away from Pakistan.
It is only when you play in front of your home crowd that you begin to believe that you can represent your country and deserve to be on the international stage, as he explained.
As he continued, “When you play in Pakistan, I remember that I used to feel different body language in me and used to have an entirely different mindset.”
“I used to think that the kind of reception you get from Pakistani people when you take a wicket or a brilliant catch” (is amazing).
“You become a hero when you hit a six,” the crowds used to chant.
