'It is like marriage without bride' - Shoaib Akhtar on playing matches behind closed doors

The Coronavirus pandemic has forced the cricketing activities to be shut down since March. Even as the world continues to fight the virus with more than 3 lakh deaths, there have been discussions of the sport resuming behind closed doors. Among other sports, Football has resumed in Europe with Bundesliga starting from May 16.

Meanwhile, even cricket is likely to be played without spectators as the boards are fearing a complete swap of their home season. England’s home summer was supposed to commence last month itself but was postponed due to a lot of COVID-19 cases in the country. However, the ECB is now contemplating hosting Pakistan and the West Indies in a couple of stadiums and earn from broadcasting revenues.

Giving his views on the matches likely to be played behind closed doors, former Pakistan Shoaib Akhtar has opined that it will be like marriage happening without a bride. He feels that the fans flocking the stadiums is a must for cricket to be marketed. He also hoped that the current situation improves in a year so that the spectators can start watching the games in the stadium.

“Playing cricket in the empty stadiums may be viable and durable for cricket boards. But I do not think we can market this. Playing cricket in an empty stadium is like marriage without a bride. We need crowds to play games. I hope the corona situation will be normalized within a year,” Akhtar said during a live session on Helo.

Shoaib Akhtar recalls Sachin Tendulkar missing his 100 in WC 2003

During the session, Shoaib Akhtar also recalled the famous India-Pakistan encounter in the World Cup 2003 in Centurion. He expressed his disappointment over Sachin Tendulkar not able to complete his well-deserved ton. Akhtar dismissed the master blaster on 98 in the game but India still managed to chase down 274 with utter ease.

“I was very sad because Sachin got out for 98. It was special innings, he should have touched the century mark. I wanted him to get a century. For that bouncer, I would have loved to see a sixer, as earlier he hit,” the Rawalpindi Express added.