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Pak will be under-prepared for India: Misbah
Pakistan vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq on Sunday admitted that the side will be under-prepared to pose any challenge to India in the home series next year.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: September 14, 2008 12:15 PM IST
Read Time:2 min
New Delhi:
India is scheduled to play three Tests and five ODIs in Pakistan during January-February next year, but after the postponement of home series against Australia and the ODI Champions Trophy due to security concerns, Pakistan hardly has any international assignments in hand.
Although, the Pakistan Cricket Board has requested West Indies to play two Tests in Lahore in November, it is not yet certain.
"Yes, we will be under-prepared for the India series because we hardly played Test cricket and faced top quality teams in ODIs as well," Misbah said after a practice session with his team-mates of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, the first class champions of Pakistan.
However, the aggressive right-hander asserted that as "professional cricketers, these problems should not bother us. We need to prepare ourselves for every eventuality."
Misbah also said that politics has no role to play in cricket and only acts as a barrier in the development of the game.
"I think sports should never be mixed with political issues, it should be kept aside because at the end of the day it is cricket which suffers.
"Of course the postponement of Australia series and the Champions Trophy has affected the game in Pakistan. The series against Australia was very important for us, not only from players' perspective but also from the general view."
"After the Australia series postponement, Champions Trophy was our only hope. And after the successful hosting of Asia Cup, we were pretty confident about hosting the CT," the 34-year-old middle-order batsman said.
Misbah felt all the international cricket teams should be committed to their foreign tours.
"According to me, every team should play everywhere irrespective of the situation, otherwise the game's promotion will suffer," he said.
With security threats denying the Pakistani team a chance to play international cricket most of this year, vice-captain Misbah-ul-Haq on Sunday admitted that the side will be under-prepared to pose any challenge to India in the home series next year.India is scheduled to play three Tests and five ODIs in Pakistan during January-February next year, but after the postponement of home series against Australia and the ODI Champions Trophy due to security concerns, Pakistan hardly has any international assignments in hand.
Although, the Pakistan Cricket Board has requested West Indies to play two Tests in Lahore in November, it is not yet certain.
"Yes, we will be under-prepared for the India series because we hardly played Test cricket and faced top quality teams in ODIs as well," Misbah said after a practice session with his team-mates of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, the first class champions of Pakistan.
However, the aggressive right-hander asserted that as "professional cricketers, these problems should not bother us. We need to prepare ourselves for every eventuality."
Misbah also said that politics has no role to play in cricket and only acts as a barrier in the development of the game.
"I think sports should never be mixed with political issues, it should be kept aside because at the end of the day it is cricket which suffers.
"Of course the postponement of Australia series and the Champions Trophy has affected the game in Pakistan. The series against Australia was very important for us, not only from players' perspective but also from the general view."
"After the Australia series postponement, Champions Trophy was our only hope. And after the successful hosting of Asia Cup, we were pretty confident about hosting the CT," the 34-year-old middle-order batsman said.
Misbah felt all the international cricket teams should be committed to their foreign tours.
"According to me, every team should play everywhere irrespective of the situation, otherwise the game's promotion will suffer," he said.
Topics mentioned in this article
Cricket Misbah-ul-Haq MS Dhoni Yuvraj Singh Mohammad Hafeez Tim Southee Pakistan Cricket Team Sri Lanka Cricket Team Wasim Akram Younus Khan Shahid Afridi India Cricket Team New Zealand Cricket Team
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