Graeme Smith upbeat to see international cricket return to Pakistan

Former South African skipper and opener, Graeme Smith revealed that he is upbeat and excited to see international cricket return to Pakistan. The left-hander, who has been bestowed with coaching duties in the flagship T20 Global League, for team Benoni Zalmi, believes that revival of the sport will provide a major boost to the nation. Pakistan will host the World XI team for a 3 T20I series, which has a week-long schedule next month.

The 36-year-old noted that cricket in the country has suffered a lot and that it will be a blessing to the fans of the sport to be able to witness top-flight cricket on home soil once again. Pakistan cricket suffered a major setback in 2009 when a terrorist group attacked Sri Lankan players leaving a few of them injured. Since then, the country hasn’t witnessed much international cricket with only Zimbabwe touring the nation for a limited-overs series in 2015.

Talking exclusively to Geo.tv, the veteran cricketer said, “It is wonderful to see the game returning [to Pakistan] and fans able to experience international cricket. It has been hard for Pakistan to not to be able to play cricket at home but the credit goes to the players and ICC [International Cricket Council] for launching cricket there again.”

Smith feels T20 format should be exclusively for the franchise-based leagues

Smith, who represented the Proteas in 117 Test matches and 197 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) is also excited for Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) initiative to hold a franchise-based T20 league and hopes it will help the country’s cricket landscape expand more.

The former batting dynamo even went on to praise team Zalmi’s management, mentioning how great it is to work with Javed Afridi and Mohammad Akram, both of whom are passionate about the game’s progress.

The cricketer also spoke at large on the future of league cricket, emphasizing that the T20 format should be exclusively for the franchise-based leagues, whereas international T20s should be limited to the World Cup only.