Mohammad Yousaf was a batsman par excellence in his hey day. His advices and suggestions for improving the game of cricket in Pakistan should, therefore, carry weight. He has a point there when he says that the Home series in the UAE have been damaging Pakistan cricket. For the last six years our batsmen have been playing on the flat and low bounce pitches of the UAE which are suicidal for our batsmen. That is the precise reason that when they are on foreign tours and confronted by the Kangaroos or the Kiwis or for that matter by English bowlers on their home pitches they cut a sorry figure. If for one reason or the other Pakistan cannot persuade the foreign teams to come to Pakistan then the better option is that Pakistan should arrange its Home series in Sr Lanka or Bangla Desh. As a matter of policy our groundsmen need to be told that pitches in Pakistan should also be so prepared that they should not be a paradise for batsmen only. They should be bowler-friendly also so that every test match could yield result. There had come a time in cricket’s history when the test matches became a drab affair and, more often than not, they ended in tame draws rather than yielding result one way or the other———-thanks to flat pitches. The ODIs and later on Twenty20 format of cricket were introduced to attract cricket fans to the cricket grounds as they wanted instant results which the test cricket wasn’t providing them. . Fortunately, that phase is a history now and for the last couple of years test matches are also giving results even in three or four days because sporting pitches are being prepared which are equally beneficial both to the batsmen and bowlers. The cricket experts have, however, always had serious reservations about the shorter version of the game and they considered only the test cricket as true cricket.
Cricket fever has, these days, gripped the cricket world. If Pakistan is playing England, so is the West Indies, which is playing India and the Sri Lankans are locking their horns with the Aussies. The Indians are lucky that in Virat Kohli and Ashwin they have discovered a quality batsman and a spinner who are true substitutes of Tendulkar and Harbajan respectively and who are going to play for India for many many years to come. Pakistan too has found quality pacemen in Sohail Khan and Rahat Ali and a wicket taking spinner in Yasir Shah.
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