Playing on the flat pitches will damage our cricket: Mohammad Yousuf

Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf expressed his worries over hosting “home” series on the flat pitches in the United Arab Emirates and stated that it would damage Pakistan cricket.

“Playing on the flat and low bounced pitches of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai has already affected our cricket and our players and if we don’t stop organizing our series there it will eventually damage our cricket,” Yousuf said.

Pakistan has been playing in UAE for the last six or seven years and he believes that if it continues, Pakistan will stop producing players capable of scoring runs in all types of surfaces. “If it is all about creating records, fine. But it is not helping our cricket in any way and we will stop producing players capable of playing on any surface in a few years time if we continue playing our home series in UAE,” he told PTI.

The 41-year old also believes that Pakistan hasn’t actually encountered any typical English pitches in the ongoing series against England. The series in currently squared 1-1, with the third Test match, starting today at Birmingham. “And let us be straight so far we have not encountered any typical English pitch in the ongoing series,” he added.

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He also backed PCB’s move to host the home series at some other neutral venue. “Sri Lanka or Bangladesh are far better options as conditions there are more suited for cricket.”

Mushrooming of T20 cricket:

He pointed out that, with a lot of T20 events in Pakistan, it is also going to damage Pakistan cricket. “T20 cricket if allowed to be held uncontrolled will also eventually damage our cricket and our players and we will end up like the West Indies is struggling now in the longer format. T20 not a format where which can produce technically sound players,” he said.

Yousuf said that having the Pakistan Super League and a national T20 event should be enough as T20 events in Pakistan. “At present, there is a mushrooming of T20 cricket so much so that even at the club level and schools level there is too much emphasis on T20 cricket. We need to have more 40 over and 50 over games at the lower level or we wouldn’t produce technically sound players.”

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“If we find competent players in first class or 50-over matches we will automatically also discover players who can do well in T20 cricket,” he added.

Yousuf pointed out that, India despite having a big T20 event like the IPL, focusses on finding talent from their first-class structure. “That is why most of their young players also who come into the IPL are technically very sound.”

“We can’t base the selection of our national teams by depending on players who score in T20 cricket,” he concluded.