ISLAMABAD:Senator Faisal Javed sees Australian squad’s tour to Pakistan as revival of full scaled international cricket in the country, saying holding of the whole Pakistan Super League (PSL) in the country, paved way for foreign teams visit here.
“It was Prime Minister Imran Khan who said three years back that the whole PSL would be held in Pakistan and the full season was played here successfully. This paved the way for revival of international cricket,” he said while talking to media persons during a visit at the Pindi Stadium, Rawalpindi on Sunday.
He was of the view that there was no crowd seen and stadiums were empty when PSL used to happen in UAE. “But when PSL was moved here, the stadiums were seen jam packed which is the beauty of cricket. After that teams of Marylebone Cricket Club, West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh visited here and now it was the Australian squad touring to Pakistan,” he said.
“This visit will have a great impact on Pakistani tourism and the journalists, officials and staff accompanying the Australian team will go back with a positive message that Pakistan is a safe country for all sports activities”, he expressed.
Faisal said that Australians were loving their stay here. “We all should back and promote this tour and project the soft image of Pakistan. The enemies of Pakistan absolutely don’t want peace here and they try to damage Pakistan’s image by doing conspiracies against our country. India can’t see Pakistan progressing.”
He said that the Pakistani nation was the most resilient in the world. “We have seen many difficult times but we have come out of it successful and prosperous. “I pray to Allah Almighty that may these good times remain forever and cricket and peace goes on,” he said.
Faisal said that Pakistan was moving in the right direction as it had record remittances, tax collections, exports, ten dams are being made in ten years, health coverage was there. “So despite COVID, Pakistan has a growth of 5.37 percent. The Opposition was fearing that Prime Minister Imran Khan was succeeding in making Pakistan a great country.
To a question, we need a lot of stadiums in the country. “We made stadiums in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when we had government there in our previous tenure. The whole recent domestic season was won by KP as a lot of talent came from there. Our Prime Minister has also focus in making grounds in Northern areas.
Meanwhile he said the game of cricket has overshadowed all other sports. “But the government is bringing a comprehensive sports policy after which things will be streamlined,” he said.
