Lahore: Former Pakistani left-arm pacer Wasim Akram criticised the International Cricket Council (ICC) for failing to pursue the BCCI to play bilateral series against Pakistan.
A deadly left-arm bowler in his playing days, Akram who was one of Pakistan’s heroes in their World Cup win in 1992 said that it’s indeed unfortunate that youngsters from both India and Pakistan aren’t able to compete against each other. He supported the idea of a bilateral series which should be strictly kept away from politics.
Akram, as quoted by Geo TV said, “I don’t think ICC has the power to pursue BCCI, but again I have always said people-to-people contact is necessary. Politics and sport should be kept separate.”
The former Pakistan skipper also said that an India-Pakistan match would fetch more audience and is more exciting compared to the Ashes series, played between traditional rivals Australia and their traditional rivals, England.
“A Pakistan-India match is more fun to watch than the Ashes. Twenty million people watch the Ashes while a Pakistan-India match is watched by a billion people,” the 51-year-old added.
In 2014, the BCCI had agreed to a deal with PCB according to which it would play six bilateral series against Pakistan from 2015 and 2023. Four of these six series was supposed to be hosted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
But political tensions has resulted the BCCI to reconsider this agreement and thus, they have denied to play against Pakistan.
Nonetheless, they met each other two times in this year’s Champions Trophy where the Indians got the better of Pakistan in the first game and the Men in Green had the last laugh after thrashing Virat Kohli’s team by 180 runs in the final played in London.