The Indian blind cricket team captain, Shekher Naik has described Pakistan as a safe country for staging international cricket ties and urged the cricket boards across the world to send their teams to visit Pakistan. "If we (Indian blind cricket team) can visit Pakistan as there is no security issue here and we played cricket without any problem during our visit," he told media here on Monday before the departure of the 17-member team.
General Manager, Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, Mahar Yousaf Haroon and other officials gave a warm send off to the team. Pakistan team won the T20 series 2-1 and made a clean sweep of 3-0 in the One-day matches to outshine their rivals. The Indian captain was of the view that Pakistan can stage international cricket ties as there is no security concern.
"I think the stage has come that the other cricket national (playing normal cricket) should not hesitate to visit Pakistan," he said adding "We are a blind cricket team which lacks in many physical areas but even then we visited Pakistan," he said. He called for resumption of cricket ties between India and Pakistan as people from both the sides are eager to see the start of cricket. "Resumption of cricket will also help address the cause of cricket in sub-continent," he said.
Shekher Naik said Pakistan team put up far superior performance because of being rich in experience. "Victory and defeat are the part of the game and our team has learnt a lot from this tour though we could not win in any format," he said adding "It was a very beneficial tour in terms of improving the performance of our as their team is preparing for blind world cup cricket tournament to be held in India."
He said the weaknesses noticed during the tour will be overcome by taking remedial measures and it is hoped that Indian team will blend into a winning combination before the Cup being played next year. "We are leaving with sweet memories and love extended by the people of Pakistan and we will always remember our tour of Pakistan," Shekher Naik added.