WI coach praises ‘adequate’ security arrangements

KARACHI: It’s rare to see a coach in a reasonably good mood soon after his team has crashed to a series whitewash and that too without putting up a decent fight.

But Stuart Law, the West Indies’ coach, was upbeat even after his team suffered a third straight defeat in their three-match Twenty20 International series against Pakistan here at the National Stadium on Tuesday night.

That because the former Australian batsman knew that the bigger purpose for the visitors was to help Pakistan in their campaign to revive international cricket at home.That purpose was fully achieved as the T20 series was staged successfully in Karachi without any sort of untoward incident.

Shortly before leaving the National Stadium for the airport, Law gave full marks to the security arrangements for the series.“The security has been outstanding... we haven’t seen any issues, any incidences,” he told reporters after West Indies lost the last game by eight wickets.

“It’s a bit daunting if you are not used to the setup... it’s a bit daunting for the people outside but once you get here and see it for yourself, it’s different,” Law said.“I’m not saying that it has opened the floodgates and everyone comes rushing back... still, people will have reservations.

“But from what I’ve seen here, it’s more than adequate — that’s for sure — to make sure that we can get cricket back in Pakistan.”Law, who confessed that he is a big fan of Pakistan cricket, was impressed with Karachi fans who turned up in big numbers despite the fact that it was one-sided series.

“This is the “first time I’ve been to Karachi; the fans here were outstanding... every night, there was a tremendous atmosphere in the ground.“They are very respectful to us... everywhere we’ve been, [we were] treated very well,” Law said.

Law admitted that he was disappointed at the way his team succumbed in all three games.“Yes, I’m disappointed with our result... you guys will obviously be very happy with the result. But I think another result of [this series] is that there’s a lot of smiles on faces, there are a lot of people happy out there,” he said. “I’m just glad for the people here in Karachi, particularly, but also Pakistan, to see their national team playing really well against another international cricket team.”