Former Pakistan cricketer Mudassar Nazar has said that it is just a matter of time before the Pakistan team regains its lost glory. He also picked his team favorites over India ahead of the T20 World Cup 2021 clash.
Pakistan were kings of the sub-continent from the mid-1980s to the 1990s with their on-field brilliance under Imran Khan, who led them to the 1992 World Cup, before India turned the tables.
“I don’t think Pakistan has changed. It is India who have changed. With the advent of the IPL they have used the money really, really well. If you look at the domestic competition in India, look at all the associations, how well they are organizing their cricket.
Everybody has got their own stadium, their own academies, school cricket, state cricket. Cricket is thriving in India. But the people who have been consistently doing well have been England and Australia…India is in the forefront and among the three best sides in the world,” Nazar told AFP ahead of the eagerly-awaited India-Pakistan clash in T20 World Cup 2021 on Oct 24.
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Most of the success for the Indian cricket team and the rise of BCCI and India as a world power in cricket comes from the IPL, which since its advent in 2008, has emerged as the world’s richest T20 league with its brand value estimated at $6.7 billion in 2019 by the Duff and Phelps financial consultancy.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has struggled to get big-name countries to tour the nation after the 2009 terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team. Also ever since the Mumbai terrorists’ attacks in 2008, India has played just one bilateral series in 2012-13 against Pakistan and the two arch-rivals only meet in ICC events.
“The BCCI has been very clever in how they used the IPL money. Indian cricket was powerful before that but since then it has seen a lot of consistency. They have got all the areas covered. You talk about fast bowling, you talk about spinners, fielding, the physical side, it’s a powerhouse. They seem to be getting top-class batsmen every season. At the moment they are looking very formidable,” Nazar said about the IPL.
However, Nazar hopes that nation’s own Pakistan Super League (PSL) will revive the game in the country, which has seen a downfall in domestic and club cricket.
“It is also a matter of cycles. One decade we could be better than the rest of the world and then somebody else catches up. Things have started to improve with the PSL, but it will take time. It took time for India to revive.
There is no club cricket and there is hardly any state cricket, so that’s a stumbling block. “But now with the new management coming in, Ramiz is a former cricketer and I think he will shape things better, put us on the right path, and in the next couple of years probably we will be as strong as we used to be,” Nazar said in hope.
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The former batter who played 76 Tests between 1976 and 1989 with a batting average of over 38, said that Pakistan will turn corners and beat India for the very first time in a world cup match when the two teams clash on Oct 24 in T20 World Cup 2021.
“It needs somebody to come up with some brilliance. Somebody has a damn good game. Somebody has a decent century and bowls a decent spell and all of a sudden the tables will turn,” he signed off.
(AFP inputs)
