Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik gave a brilliant and humorus answer when asked by an anchor during a chat if his wife, India's Sania Mirza can help revive India-Pakistan cricketing ties.
India and Pakistan do not play regular bilateral cricket anymore, especially after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The last time India went to Pakistan was in 2008 for Asia Cup and Pakistan came to India for a white-ball series in 2012-13.
Since then, both teams only play in ICC and ACC events. However, this is also in danger after BCCI refused to send the Indian team to Pakistan for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 and the PCB retaliated by threatening to boycott the ODI World Cup to be played in India in October-November this year.
Meanwhile, in an interview segment on Geo Sports, Shoaib Malik was asked how to revive India-Pakistan bilateral cricket. Just as he was about to answer, the host interjected, “Should we ask Sania Mirza to help out?”
“Humey saath mey rehna ka time nahi mil raha (We don’t get much time to live together!” Malik said before laughing.
He then talked about how India and Pakistan can go back to playing regular cricket which will benefit both nations. He said that if both countries play cricket, lots of things can get better between them.
“Sports, not just cricket, unites. This is the best way. Whenever we get an opportunity, we should travel to each other’s country. Neighbors have the most rights to each other. We are neighbors and I pray that sports revive in both our countries.
Even now, you see the biggest match of ICC is India-Pakistan only. Even not just Pakistan-India fans, but even those from the other countries love to see us play. If the two countries can play, lots of things can get better,” Malik said.
It remains to be seen where the PCB hosts the Asia Cup as it has suggested a hybrid model of India playing its games at a neutral venue and the rest of the teams playing in Pakistan. However, Najam Sethi, the PCB chairman has put a condition that the same thing should be done for Pakistan in World Cup as well.
