Southampton, UK,
Wasim Akram has insisted England “owe” Pakistan for proceeding with their ongoing tour amid the coronavirus pandemic as he urged English officials to honour a planned returned visit in 2022.
England have not visited Pakistan since 2005/06. An attack by armed militants on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009 ended major cricket tours for a decade.
But Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Bangladesh have all since made the trip.
Pakistan are currently playing the second Test of a three-match series at Southampton, which follows an England-West Indies series last month that marked international cricket’s return from lockdown.
Both teams, among the poorer Test nations, have been praised for travelling to Britain, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak and helping spare the England and Wales Cricket Board an estimated £280 million ($366 million) loss if their scheduled matches were wiped out by the virus.
“You (England) boys owe Pakistan cricket, and the country, a lot, with the boys coming over here,” Pakistan great Akram told Sky Sports on Sunday.
And he said the fact English players had taken part in this year’s edition of the Pakistan Super League, a Twenty20 franchise tournament, should encourage the ECB in thinking it was safe to send the national side there as well.—APP
