World Test Cricket must have Pak-India fixtures: Waqar

Our correspondent

LAHORE: Former pace great Waqar Younis has said it doesn’t make sense that the ICC World Test Championships don’t have any India-Pakistan fixture.

The World Test Championships features nine top-ranked Test teams, who will play six bilateral Test series against mutually chosen opponents with the top two nations with most points at the end of the league clashing in the final in England in June 2021. “I know it is a difficult situation between Pakistan and India even at government to government level but I think the ICC needed to play a more proactive role in the championships,” Waqar was quoted as saying during an interview.

“The ICC should have intervened and done something because to me having a Test championship without Pakistan and India matches makes no sense,” asserted Waqar. Since the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, India hasn’t toured Pakistan. The two neighbours have also not played a full Test bilateral series since 2007 due to strained political and diplomatic relations. Waqar lamented that due to the on and off strained relations with India, he got to play only four Tests against the arch rivals in an international career spanning 14-years, featuring 87 Tests and 262 ODIs. “It’s always been like this that is why making my Test debut against India is something I don’t forget,” he said.