DUBAI: At a time when India have refused to allow their cricket team to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy and opted to play their matches in Dubai instead, former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed has asserted that Team India would receive a lot of love and admiration from people in Pakistan, which was doing a fine job of hosting the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy so far.
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Talking to the reporters during the India versus Pakistan match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium here on Sunday, Sarfaraz, while urging India to tour Pakistan in the near future, said, “See, as a sportsman, my view, and the general view is that the Pakistan public wants to see the Indian cricket team in Pakistan. I was very young, when in 2004, the Indian team came to Pakistan, then they came to Pakistan in 2005, and then in 2008 for the Asia Cup, in which I too played. Top-flight cricket has returned to Pakistan after a long time. All the world’s top stars-Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc have come to Pakistan and played there. I and the Pakistan public want that India’s biggest cricketing stars should come to Pakistan. They will receive a lot of love there. The tournament is being organized very nicely by Pakistan.. everything is running well there. It’s safe to be in Pakistan.”
Reiterating his wish that India must tour Pakistan, Sarfaraz, who famously captained India to the 2017 Champions Trophy triumph in England with a thumping 180-run win over India in the final and is one of the event ambassadors of the 2025 Champions Trophy, said, “We just want the Indian team to come to Pakistan, so that our fans can see Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah play. The Pakistan fans loved India’s cricketers. You saw yesterday, the stadium was packed for the England versus Australia match. Both the team received good support. It’s ok if it didn’t happen this time, but I really wish India will come to Pakistan in the future.”
Touching an emotional chord with people of both the countries, Sarfarz said that there is a striking similarity between people in the port cities of Karachi and Mumbai. “There’s no difference between us (India and Pakistan). Our culture is the same. We just have a problem of land. I am from Karachi, the way we people from Karachi speak, is the same way that people from Mumbai speak- we tend to speak fast! I remember that in 2007, I went to the old market area in Delhi. It was just like the market in Karachi. So, there are a lot of similarities between us.,” he said.
The former Pakistan stumper yearned for the resumption of bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan-the last series between the arch-rivals and tense neighbours took place in the 2012-13 season in India. Asked how disappointing was it that both the teams don’t play Test cricket against each other, Sarfaraz said, “There should be a lot of bilateral series between India and Pakistan. When I was young, I used to watch a lot of India-Pakistan series in 2005 and in 2007. It’s a thing which is missing from world cricket. I always say that when people talk about India-Pakistan rivalry, they expect something (tension) on the ground. However, I’ve not seen better friendships than those between the Indian and Pakistan cricketers,” Sarfaraz said, before going on to explain his point further.
“I’ve seen some good friendship in the era when Inzamam-ul-Haque, Wasim Akram, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli were the captains. You’ve some the friendship that Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar enjoy with Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina. There was a lot of friendship beyond the cricket ground between the players. Everyone was to win, and there were no compromises on the ground. So, if there’s a bilateral series between India and Pakistan, both the teams’ players will get a good opportunity to perform well,” the 37-year-old, who has played 54 Tests, 117 ODIs and 61 T20Is, said.
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