Former Pakistan captain and cricket idol Wasim Akram has shared his two cents on the ongoing controversial pull-outs of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) from their respective limited-overs tours of Pakistan that have grabbed all the cricketing headlines in the last few days.
Popularly referred to as the ‘Sultan of Swing’, Akram has come out in support of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a rather buoyant fashion as the 55-year-old legend quoted a famous saying to motivate Babar Azam and the present ranks in Pakistan’s dressing room, ahead of their all-important ICC T20 World Cup 2021 campaign in the UAE and Oman.
The showpiece event starts on October 17 with the preliminary round matches, but Azam and Co. commence their World T20 tournament against arch-rivals India on Sunday (October 24) at Dubai International Stadium.
The PCB has been miserably hit by the cancellation of the New Zealand and England tours that were scheduled to be currently underway as a preparatory series just before the T20 WC.
However, the Asian cricket giants have the back of their veteran stalwarts who wore the green jersey with pride back in the day and continue to inspire the current national team under the able reins of skipper Babar Azam and newly appointed chairman Ramiz Raja.
Pakistan’s iconic pacer Akram is a prime example of how ex-cricketers can use their voice and leverage fans and audiences to form a well-researched perspective on the status quo in the country as far as issues of safety and security are concerned. He posted on his official Twitter handle:
“It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life. Unfortunately we live in a world where terror threats haunt sports and entertainment in every single country. But I would much rather play cricket in a country that is prepared for anything than one that isn’t.” tweeted Akram.
After a series of tweets shared by several Pakistani cricketing stars took social media by storm if the point didn’t adequately come across, Akram’s Australian wife Shaniera Akram, too, joined the green brigade in convincing the world how safe Pakistan is for any kind of tour to take place, leave alone simply cricket. Pakistani cricketers viz. Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Amir, and Kamran Akmal seemed to reflect similar sentiments.
The PCB is furious as it is at the entire unraveling of events in the past few days, but skipper Babar, although disappointed, is strong in his resolve to bounce back and become a leader of a solid, revived, and thriving Pakistani cricket team ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Meanwhile, being Pakistan’s all-format captain and second-ranked T20I batsman, Babar will also captain Central Punjab in the National T20 Cup scheduled to be held from September 23 to October 13.
