‘We are a power in the cricketing world’

Pakistan captain Misbah demands respect for his team.


Afp February 06, 2012

DUBAI:


Captain Misbahul Haq said his team’s 3-0 routing of England sends a strong message to the cricketing world – Pakistan is a power and should not be ignored anymore.


“We showed the world that we’re a power in the cricketing world,” said Misbah. “Now, it’s time to give importance to the Pakistan team again.”

Misbah said Pakistan had emerged from various problems surrounding the team, notably the spot-fixing scandal.

“That was a big ask for us, you can say we just came out of such problems and the way the team came out and the way the it’s progressing, it’s a wonderful thing,” added Misbah, who took over as Test captain in October 2010. Since then Pakistan have won nine of their 15 Tests, lost one and drew five.

“Everybody has to look out for Pakistan cricket because everybody was ignoring our cricket, and a lot of things were said about the team. Our performance should be recognised. We didn’t get the edge in international fixtures and now we must be given an edge.”

Misbah demanded the return of international cricket to Pakistan, suspended in the wake of terrorists’ attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009.

“You can’t keep away a nation from international cricket after this performance. The whole world, the International Cricket Council, the playing nations should think about it and revive our international cricket. How long can we play like this? We go home for four days and then we play our home series away. It’s been almost a year now that I haven’t stayed at home for over a month. We were expecting that England would have problems here because of the slow pitches. Our bowlers really bowled well, but we weren’t expecting such results.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2012.

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