Pakistan seamer Umar Gul: “There is no doubt in my mind that you cannot achieve anything in life unless there is support from your family and I was blessed with love and encouragement from my parents and the rest of my family”
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Pakistan seamer Umar Gul has said that he wouldn’t have been a successful cricketer without the support of his family.
His comments come after he recently retired from all forms of cricket.
He represented Pakistan in 47 Tests and took 163 wickets at an average of 34.06.
Gul also featured in 130 ODIs and claimed 179 wickets at an average of 29.34.
As for his T20 International career, the 36-year-old is Pakistan’s second-highest wicket-taker in the format with 85 wickets in 60 matches at an average of 16.97. Only legendary all-rounder Shahid Afridi is ahead of him with 97 wickets.
“There is no doubt in my mind that you cannot achieve anything in life unless there is support from your family and I was blessed with love and encouragement from my parents and the rest of my family,” he told PakPassion. “Initially there was some pressure from the family for me to pursue studies instead of playing cricket at a professional level.
“However, once it became clear that I had passion for the game and was talented enough to achieve my goals of becoming a top-class cricketer then the support I got from my family was absolutely incredible. Of course, hard work is important to reach one’s goals but I was also fortunate enough to have come through the system and my basic grounding in cricket was very good and this probably helped me a lot to grow as a cricketer and to eventually serve my country.”