NEWS
Follow UsFormer Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi bats for resumption of cricket between India and Pakistan. The two teams last faced each other in a bilateral series since 2012-13, when Pakistan toured India for a short three One-Day International (ODI) series. Since then, the matches between the neighbours have been played in multi-nation tournaments, which include the ICC events and the Asia Cup.
Afridi, who has been a part of many memorable Indo-Pak matches, feels the relationship between the two countries could be improved through cricket. "Cricket between Pakistan and India is very important. Sports should be kept away from politics. Relations between the two countries can improve because of cricket," Afridi was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
"I have said this before as well, Indian cricketers enjoy coming to Pakistan. You can improve relationships through sports but if you don't want to improve them then they will remain the same way," Afridi added.
There have been murmurs of late about the possible resumption of cricketing ties between the two teams, but some former players from India and Pakistan do not seem confident of that happening any time soon.
Another former captain Ramiz Raja is of the opinion that India and Pakistan should participate in the next cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC). The last time a Test was played between the two nations was back in 2007.
“The current format was lopsided and prolonged and it made no sense not having India and Pakistan series. Teams didn’t play the same number of matches and even the points system was weird. There should have been a 3-month window and everyone should have played against each other,” he had said on YouTube Channel Cricket Baaz.