Blind cricket: Pakistan a safe country for cricket, says Indian captain

Calls for revival of cricketing ties between the countries.

LAHORE: India Blind cricket team captain Shekher Naik has termed Pakistan a safe country for staging international matches and has urged boards from across the world to send their teams to the country.

Naik, who captained India in a one-day and T20 series against Pakistan recently, insisted that there was no such thing as security problems.

“If the Indian blind cricket team can visit Pakistan, so can other teams,” Naik told reporters before the team’s return to India. “There is no security issue here and we played all our matches without facing any problems.”

Naik also called for resumption of cricketing ties between the national teams of both the countries.

“I think that the time has come that other cricket teams, including ours, should not hesitate to visit Pakistan. Resumption of cricket ties between India and Pakistan will also help promote the game in the sub-continent.”

Commenting on Pakistan’s victory in both the T20 and one-day series, Naik said that the hosts had fielded a very experienced side and it was a good learning experience for his team.

“We have learnt a lot from this tour though we could not win in any format. It was very beneficial in terms of preparing us for the World Cup, which will be held in India. We have identified our weaknesses and will overcome them by taking remedial measures. We are hoping that the tour will help us to eventually field a winning combination at the mega event next year.”

Pakistan won the T20 series 2-1, while whitewashing the tourists 3-0 in the one-day series that followed to outshine their arch-rivals.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2011.