Waqar confident about resumption of Indo-Pak cricketing ties

KARACHI: In recent years, India has shunned all attempts for the revival of bilateral cricketing relations against old rivals Pakistan.

The BJP government in India has been averse to the idea of reviving Indo-Pak matches which is why most experts do not see any possibility of such a contest taking place in the near future. The last time both the countries played a bilateral cricket series was back in 2012-13. Since then, the two teams have been meeting only in ICC tournaments.

But ask former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis and he will give you a completely different perspective. Waqar, who is currently Pakistan’s bowling coach, said on Monday that he is optimistic about the possibility of bilateral Indo-Pak matches in the coming years.

“If you go and ask people of both the countries on whether Pakistan and India should play each other, everyone, or at least around 95% of them, will agree that cricket between these two teams should be played,” Waqar said.

“Be it the ‘Imran-Kapil Series’ or the ‘Independence Series’ or whatever name we give to it, I think that it would be the biggest hit of the world. I think Pakistan and India should play, and should play on a regular basis to avoid depriving cricket lovers of their matches.

“I do see Pakistan and India playing bilateral series. I am not sure where, though, but I hope it will be either in Pakistan or in India. You don’t want to see them playing in some other country. You want to see them playing in their own countries. But I definitely say that in the next few years, Pakistan and India will be playing each other,” he added.

Meanwhile, Waqar stressed that former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi and India’s Gautam Gambhir, who have been at loggerheads for years now, should be “smart, sensible, and calm down”.

Gambhir and Afridi have had several run-ins since their playing days and have been in the news multiple times over the past few years for taking digs at each other on public platforms. “The banter between Gambhir and Afridi has been going on for a while now. I think they both got to be smart, sensible, and calm down,” he said. “It has been going on for way too long. My advise to them is to maybe catch up somewhere around the world and talk it out if you cannot really calm it down. On social media, if you carry on like that, people are going to love and enjoy it. I feel that they both should be smart about it.”