Imran Khan: “Right now, playing cricket in this atmosphere with this sort of a government in power, I would imagine it would be a terrible atmosphere on the cricket ground”
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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that India and Pakistan can’t play a bilateral series right now since “I would imagine it would be a terrible atmosphere on the cricket ground”.
India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since the latter toured India for two Twenty20 Internationals and three ODIs from December 2012 to January 2013.
Since then, the two arch-rivals have only clashed at major cricket events like the World Cup, T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy and Asia Cup.
Imran, who is widely regarded as one of Pakistan’s greatest-ever captains, reminisced about many fond memories playing against India, and pointed out that a series between the two arch-rivals is unmatched by another other well-known series, including the Ashes.
“If I have time to watch cricket, I time it to the last 5 overs of the result. If it’s a close game, it’s quite fun to watch,” Imran said on the Out Of Exile documentary on Sky Sports as quoted by PakPassion. “As a connoisseur of cricket, I don’t enjoy T20. I enjoy the improvisation in strokeplay, I look at the T20 games and think why didn’t I try to develop those strokes. But I just love good quality Test cricket, but for that, I don’t have much time.
“I played two series in India. One in 1979 when the two governments were trying to come close. I can’t tell you how wonderful the atmosphere was on the cricket field. Big crowds.
“The next time I went was in 1987 and this time, there was tension between the two governments I saw hostility in India which I had never seen before. Our players were being pelted from the ground and I made them wear helmets while fielding at the boundary. It wasn’t a very good atmosphere on certain grounds.
“When India came to Pakistan in 2005, again the governments were trying to get close. I never thought I would see on a cricket ground what happened. Pakistan lost to India in Pakistan and the crowds cheered the Indian team. Great atmosphere.
“Right now, playing cricket in this atmosphere with this sort of a government in power, I would imagine it would be a terrible atmosphere on the cricket ground.
“There’s nothing quite like the Ashes for the English. But Pakistan-India series is just in a different league in terms of tension, pressure, and enjoyment.”
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