http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 Butt calls England as Pakistan team’s official second home
Salman Butt, the newly-appointed Test captain of Pakistan, has called England as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cricket team’s official second home. The cricket nomads were forced to play their “home series” against Australia on neutral English venues after the Australian team declined to visit the country owing to the deteriorating security situation.
Salman Butt said that the English conditions are quite favourable for Pakistan and it is a lovely place to stage matches. He said that the support they received at English venues was remarkable as a lot of British Pakistanis have turned up to support them. While talking to reporters, Pakistan’s skipper explained that his team really enjoyed playing cricket in England and would love to stage their neutral matches at English grounds in the future as well.
Security in Pakistan had long been a question mark for touring cricket teams. In May 2002, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758’s Cricket Board to send their cricketer’s to Pakistan who were promised “presidential-level security”.
On 3rd http://www.senore.com/Cricket/March-c74391 2009, when the Sri Lanka team was on its way to the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore for the 3rd day of their second Test, the bus carrying them was attacked by 12 gun-toting militants. Six visiting players were injured while six policemen and two civilians lost their lives. It was the first attack on any sports team since the Munich massacre where Israeli athletes were attacked by Palestinian militants.
Since then, Pakistan has become a no-go zone for the world’s leading cricket teams and the national team of Pakistan is wandering across the globe to play international cricket. Earlier, the PCB has used the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 as an alternative home for the ODI’s. Pakistan played Australia and New Zealand at the neutral venues in Dubai and Abu Dhabi last year.
25-year-old Salman, while talking to reporters at Trent Bridge, claimed that playing cricket in Pakistan has always been the top priority of the team but looking at the unfortunate situation prevailing in country over the past few years, he feels England is the best option.
“Of course, the number one priority would be to play in Pakistan. But with the unfortunate situation which is currently going on, I think England is the best option,” said the Pakistan skipper. “The unfortunate part is there are only six months of the season here so we might have to go to other places as well,” added Butt.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 next year and the Yorkshire management wants to be at the vanguard of the bidders to host at least one of those matches.
Due to the poor turnout for the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746-Pakistan neutral match along with the redevelopment of the ground, Yorkshire is facing cash-flow problems.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Arshad-c45521 Chaudhry, chairman of the Leeds-based Asian Business Development Network who is a Yorkshire County Cricket Club member as well said that the media would project these neutral matches in a proper manner and better promotion would lead to higher ticket sales.
Though the Headingley test failed to catch a good turnout but the two T20 matches at Edgbaston attracted a tremendous crowd of more than 18,000 British Pakistani fans to support their nomads in a home away from home.
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