“Pakistan angry with New Zealand, not with India,” says Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhtar is currently in UAE working as an expert
The former Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar reckons rather than the game against India, it’s the game against New Zealand which the Pakistani team will play with anger because of what unfolded between the cricket boards of two countries a month back.
The New Zealand cricket team was supposed to play 3 ODIs and 5 T20 internationals on the tour of Pakistan a month back, but they abandoned the tour without playing a single game on the basis of the intelligence inputs they received about a possible threat to the touring party.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was extremely upset with the way New Zealand Cricket (NZC) operated through that period. They were specifically furious about the fact that New Zealand didn’t even share those intelligence inputs with them so that they could have tried to find out if there was indeed any potential threat to the touring party or not.
Shoaib Akhtar says Pakistani team eager to take the anger out on New Zealand
“Our real anger is with New Zealand. We will take it out on them, we have no issues with you (India),” Shoaib Akhtar said while speaking in an event organised by India Today ahead of the T20 World Cup.
After New Zealand abandoned their tour of Pakistan, England subsequently abandoned their tour as well, citing the security concerns and that pushed Pakistan back in their bid to host regular bilateral cricket at home.
Since the time the New Zealand cricket team abandoned their tour, there have been a lot of statements from the former Pakistani cricketers that Pakistan will now roar back on the ground and beat New Zealand in the upcoming World Cup.
Even the PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said after the abandonment of NZ series that Pakistan now has to play two big games in the T20 World Cup – one against the arch rivals India and one against New Zealand.
