Pakistan’s Prime Minister and 1992 World Cup-winning skipper Imran Khan feels that staging India vs Pakistan bilateral is not possible in the “Terrible atmosphere”.
His remarks came following the ongoing relations between the two countries since last year. Both the countries have had political differences that has often affected the sporting relations as well.
Speaking during the Sky Sports documentary, Khan said that it won’t be feasible to conduct the bilateral series between the two nations.
“I just think playing cricket in this atmosphere with India with the sort of government they have in power, I would say it would be a terrible atmosphere to play bilateral cricket in,” Khan said.
India and Pakistan have avoided playing against each other since the 2008 bilateral Test series. Four years later, Pakistan toured India for the limited-overs series and since then, both the teams have only met in the ICC tournaments.
Khan recalled the time during his career when the cricketing and political relationships were great between India and Pakistan.
“They were big crowds and the governments were also trying to remove barriers and come close and it meant the atmosphere on the field was great with the crowds appreciating both teams for good cricket in 1979,” Khan said.
“But in 1987 when I captained Pakistan to India the atmosphere was not very good and there was a lot of hostility from the crowds as well because there were tensions between the two governments.”
Khan also cited that Indo-Pak clash had been more significant to him than the Ashes series could ever be.
“I think obviously the Ashes series has its importance but nothing can match a Indo-Pakistan bilateral series because it is played in a different league and the atmosphere is filled with tension, pressure and enjoyment.” Khan stated further.
