The Pakistani cricket team has arrived back in Pakistan after a four month long tour of Sri Lanka and England. This tour will be remembered for a long time for many reasons, both good and bad. The team arrived at Lahore except for four players including the captain Shahid Afridi who arrived in Karachi. In his statement upon arrival, the captain said that the tour had been the most difficult of his career. The tour began with Pakistan playing the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. From there the Pakistani team headed to England, where they played a T20 series against Australia as well as a test series. This was followed by a controversial test, T20 and ODI series against England.
Speaking to journalists upon arriving back, Shahid Afridi stated that the controversies that surrounded the tour made it very difficult for players to focus on the games themselves, and all the attention was widely unnecessary. Despite that, Afridi said that he was proud of the team for still battling those pressures and giving good performances especially in the two ODIs that the team won.
Waqar Younis, coach of the Pakistani team, said that the tour had taken a toll on the team’s support staff as well because of the effort needed to keep the players upbeat amid the barrage of allegations. He added that four months away from home had an adverse effect on every player and staff member, and even though success against Australia helped mitigate some of that, it wasn’t enough.
In England, Pakistan played two T20s against Australia which Pakistan won 2-0. After that, Pakistan played two test matches against Australia, in which Australia won the first match and second was won by Pakistan. This was Pakistan’s first test win against Australia after 15 years. In both the T20s and the test matches, Pakistan was effectively the home side.
After Australia, Pakistan played a four match test series against England. England won this test series by 3-1. Two T20s were then played between the two countries which were also won by England. In the last stage of this long tour, Pakistan played a five match one day series against England. This ODI series was an exciting one as Pakistan fought back from 2-0 to 2-2, but then meekly lost the decider.
The next assignment for the Pakistani team is a home series against the South Africans in UAE. This includes two tests, two T20s and five ODIs. This series kicks off in October. Perhaps more importantly however, Pakistani fans’ eyes will be glued to their television screens in the hope of catching any news about the fates of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt – the trio that was alleged to have participated in spot fixing scandals in the recent tour of England. These three players are vital cogs of the Pakistani team, and a resolution of this issue would help Pakistan determine which side to take to the 2011 World Cup which is getting increasingly closer.
