Afridi wants India-Pakistan matches to resume

Sports Desk: Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi on Wednesday extended his greetings to India on their Independence Day. The legendary allrounder posted a message on his Twitter account hoping for a resumption of India-Pakistan cricket.

"Happy Independence Day to #India, our neighbors across the border. I sincerely hope that from this year onwards, both Pakistan and India work towards resolving their issues for a better, peaceful and prosperous region where India Pak cricket matches can also be frequently held", Afridi captioned on Twitter.

The arch-rivals have not played a full bilateral Test series since 2007. Pakistan had visited India for three Tests and five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) then. They played a short series of three ODIs and two T20s in India in December 2012. After that, the two neighbours have played in only ICC organised tournaments or the Asia Cup. India and Pakistan last played each other in 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. Pakistan had beaten India to win the Champions Trophy.

Earlier in February this year, Afridi had won Indian hearts after his respectful gesture towards the Indian Flag.

Afridi enjoyed a stellar career for Pakistan with 398 ODIs and 27 Test matches under his belt. He amassed 8064 runs in ODIs and scored 1716 runs in Tests. After retiring from international cricket in 2017, he has been a part of a number of T20 leagues around the world.

The latest being Global T20 League in Canada where he captained the Edmonton Royals who also consisted a number of other star players in Luke Ronchi, Chris Lynn and Sohail Tanvir.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/August 15, 2018/A K Azad