LONDON 28 April (ONLINE): Shaheen Afridi said on Wednesday that Pakistani players’ presence in English county cricket will be beneficial for Pakistan.
He is one of 10 Pakistani cricketers who have signed as oversea player at least part on 2022 season.
On the eve of Middlesex’s County Championship match against Leicestershire “”I think, this year, I saw like nine or 10 players here and that’s good for Pakistan cricket.”
The high-profile contingent also includes fellow internationals Mohammad Abbas, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali and Mohammad Rizwan.
Since the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales, Pakistan have been frequent visitors to England despite the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2020 they lost a three-match Test series 1-0 and drew a Twenty20 campaign 1-1, while last year Pakistan were beaten 3-0 in a one-day international campaign and went down 2-1 in a T20 contest.
The young paceman said accepted that the team had underperformed.
He said “We played not good cricket here as a team, so now I think the top guys are all there,” he said. “So maybe it will be good for us (to get to know) the conditions and the pitches. Maybe this will help the national team as well.”
Pakistan players have long been familiar to fans of English domestic cricket.
Asif Iqbal (Kent), batting great Zaheer Abbas (Gloucestershire) and star all-rounder Imran Khan (Sussex), recently ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister, all became familiar figures on the county scene from the 1960s onwards.
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