"Imagine The Interest Test Cricket Will Receive If India And Pakistan Start Playing Regularly" - Former Pakistan Skipper Intikhab Alam

Former Pakistan captain Intikhab Alam stated that India and Pakistan should play a bilateral series on a regular basis as the two nations did in the past. Intikhab Alam believes that if Pakistan and India play against each other in a longer format of games, interest in Test cricket will increase.

India and Pakistan have stopped playing bilateral series since 2012 due to political tensions. The two teams will play against each other at the ICC and ACC tournaments. The Men in Blue didn’t have a single series against Pakistan in the first three editions of the World Test Championship (WTC).

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Intikhab Alam pointed out that the visiting teams had received support from the spectators at the stadium in the past in red-ball cricket.

“I have always maintained that India and Pakistan should play regularly. India and Pakistan must play bilateral series every two years. The BCCI and PCB should use cricket as a golden goose,” Intikhab Alam said.

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“Imagine the interest Test cricket will receive if India and Pakistan start playing regularly. People will remember the performance. We talk about the Chennai Test when the entire crowd gave the Pakistan team a standing ovation or Viru (Virender Sehwag) becoming Sultan of Multan.”

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Must Play Regularly For The Sake Of Our Next Generation – Intikhab Alam

Alam said that people had missed a great rivalry between Virat Kohli and Mohammad Amir in the last decade and hoped that Shubman Gill and Shaheen Shah Afridi would face each other in the longer format of the game.

“In our time, after the end of day’s play, a few senior players from Pakistan used to go to India’s dressing room to have tea; next day the Indian team would visit our dressing room. Those talks used to be very fruitful for the young cricketers.

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If Zaheer Abbas, Bishan Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Imran Khan are sharing their experiences, what else do you need? The current generation will never be able to see the cricketing rivalry between Bishan Singh Bedi vs Zaheer Abbas, Sunil Gavaskar vs Javed Miandad, Kapil Dev vs Imran Khan, Sachin Tendulkar vs Wasim Akram.

In the last decade, we missed what could have been a great contest between Virat Kohli vs Mohammed Amir and if the situation remains the same we won’t be able to see how Shubman Gill faces the inswinging deliveries from Shaheen Shah Afridi. We must play regularly for the sake of our next generation.”

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I Coached The Punjab Ranji Trophy Team – Intikhab Alam

Intikhab Alam believes that cricket will help the two nations come together, citing his experience as head coach of the Punjab state team.

“I have been to India so many times. I have played there as a coach, as a captain, I coached the Punjab Ranji Trophy team for two years. I never felt that I was in some other country.. hum ek hi hai (We are one). I have made so many lifelong friends. Cricket is the only thing that can bury the hatchet and bring people closer,” he concluded.

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