Pakistan team returns home after disastrous tour
by Shahid Hashmi
CRICKET: KARACHI, Sept 25 (AFP) - One-day captain Shahid Afridi
Friday called Pakistan’s scandal-marred tour of England the “most
difficult” of his career as the team staged a low-key return home after
four gruelling months away.
Coach Waqar Younis also conceded that it had been a punishing tour
“on and off the field” after corruption investigations engulfed the
side, triggering a barrage of condemnation from the press and public.
An exhausted-looking Afridi flew in to Karachi with three team-mates
while the rest of the squad arrived in Lahore in the early hours, with a
phalanx of gun-toting policemen escorting the players out of both
airports.
“It was tough because of the controversies and became very difficult
to cope with, because every time we went out of the hotel people passed
remarks against us,” Afridi told a scrum of reporters in Karachi.
“Because of the controversies on the tour, it was the most difficult
tour of my 14-year career,” the explosive all-rounder added.
The tour ended on Wednesday with Pakistan losing the one-day series
3-2. England also took the Test and Twenty20 series.
The tour will be remembered less for the on-field play and more for
the off-field revelations by British tabloids that sparked
investigations by Scotland Yard and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Allegations of spot-fixing in the Lord’s Test against England
engulfed Test captain Salman Butt along with bowlers Mohammad Aamer and
Mohammad Asif. All three were questioned by British police and returned
home early to Pakistan.
The ICC launched another probe into a suspicious scoring pattern by
Pakistan in the third one-day match at The Oval on September 17,
prompting Pakistan’s cricket chief to hurl corruption allegations in
turn against England.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday hired lawyers to reply
to a legal notice filed by English officials demanding an “unreserved
apology” over the allegations by PCB chairman Ijaz Butt.
Butt had accused England players of deliberately losing the Oval
match in return for “enormous amounts of money”, prompting passionate
denials by England. There was also an off-field altercation between
rival players.
Afridi said team unity had remained intact despite the storm of
controversy.
“The best part of the whole tour was that the players showed unity
even in difficult times and gave a good fight in the one-day series
against England,” he said, while also hinting at a return to Test
cricket.
“I will think about it and if the team needs it, I may consider
playing the Test series against South Africa,” he said, ahead of the
Proteas encounters starting late next month on neutral turf in the
United Arab Emirates.
Foreign teams have shunned tours of Pakistan since the Sri Lanka team
were attacked by gunmen near Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium in March 2009.
Seven Sri Lankan players and a coach were wounded in the attack, which
killed eight Pakistanis.
Pakistan began their troubled summer tour with matches against
Australia in England, winning both Twenty20 matches and squaring the
two-Test series 1-1. Waqar, one of Pakistan’s greatest bowlers, said the
tour’s length had taken its toll.
“If you take into account the tour to Sri Lanka before we went to
England, it was four months on the trot and the tour of England was
difficult both on and off the field,” the coach said on his arrival in
Lahore.
“We had successes against Australia which were pleasing,” Waqar
added.
“But because of the controversies it was tough against England,
because you need to go to extra effort to gee up the players when you
see a report in the newspaper every other day,” he said.
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