Srinagar: Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has expressed his shock over the statement of former India captain Saurav Ganguly who claimed India vs Pakistan World Cup matches have lost relevance owing to India winning one sided affairs.
The India vs Pakistan blockbuster World Cup 2023 fixture will be held on October 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Sourav Ganguly recently said that sheen has been taken off India-Pakistan matches given India’s ‘one-sided’ wins lately.
Reacting to Ganguly’s claims, former Pakistan batter Basit Ali is ‘shocked’.
“I read Sourav Ganguly’s statement and was quite shocked. Ganguly, the ex-BCCI president has played top-class cricket and was a fabulous captain who developed a lot of players,” Basit Ali said on his YouTube channel.
“I don’t agree with him saying that India vs Pakistan matches are one-sided in favour of India. No doubt you have beaten us a lot in ICC World Cups before but that hasn’t been the case since 2017. We beat India at the T20 World Cup in UAE and last year in the Asia Cup, won one, lost one. Yes, India defeated Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in Australia but that was purely because of Virat Kohli. He won it single-handedly. Clearly the best-ever T20 innings.”
“He also said that India vs Australia is a bigger crowd puller than India vs Pakistan. To that, I would just want to say that ‘Brother, when India plays Australia, are roads in your country empty? No. They are empty whenever there’s an India-Pakistan match – both in India and in Pakistan. Everyone is glued to their TV screen and are praying. Look at the ticket prices for the World Cup; India-Australia costs are nowhere close to India-Pakistan’s. So I feel that Ganguly – DADA ji – is just trying to play mind games,” added Basit.