Warwickshire CCC’s CEO Stuart Cain addressing to a press convention together with membership’s excessive efficiency supervisor Paul Greetham, member variety and inclusion board Rafaqat Sabir and Vice Consul Pakistan Bukhtawar Mir.—Reporter
BIRMINGHAM: Warwickshire County Cricket Membership is about to embark on a historic two-week go to to Pakistan subsequent month for pre-season preparations, marking an unprecedented tour by any county cricket staff.
This was introduced by the membership’s CEO Stuart Cain, together with its Excessive Efficiency Supervisor Paul Greetham, Rafaqat Sabir who’s a member of the membership’s Range and Inclusion Board and Bukhtawar Mir, Vice Consul at Pakistan Consulate in Birmingham throughout a press convention at Edgbaston Stadium, the house of Warwick CCC.
“We’re really excited to get out to Lahore. I think it’s it’s really important for us so that our players understand some of the culture of Pakistan bearing in mind how big the British Pakistani community is in Birmingham and West Midlands but also experienced different lives and different cultures and diversity. But equally important is the high quality of cricket you are playing against proper position who will give our guys a real challenge in high-quality facilities and that’s really important for us too”.
In Stuart’s opinion, this historic tour won’t solely assist the gamers to develop their cricket keying abilities but in addition some essential life abilities.
“Though it’s important they play cricket and train it is also equally important that when they’re in a different country they experience the culture of that country, they get to understand some of the history, the heritage and the culture, the food, the music too”.
Stuart Cain advised Geo that though he has by no means been to Lahore he’s very a lot conscious of the town’s wealthy cultural historical past and searching ahead to having fun with the culinary delights for which the town is legendary everywhere in the world.
“I’m really excited as I’ve never been to Pakistan. I will be there for three or four days and besides doing all the other things visit the city, and experience the culture and the history of Pakistan. I’m not training so I can go to dinner every night whereas the players can’t but I’m really looking forward to it some good few days in Lahore”.
“I floated this idea about 12 months ago while they were planning for a pre-season tour either to Sri Lanka or South Africa so I suggested that why don’t they go to Pakistan. They’re a bit hesitant and it took me some time to convince them and in the end, they agreed”.
“Initially they were a bit worried about the expenses but then our organisation the British Pakistani Initiative stepped in and promised to partially fund the tour and provide some logistical support locally in Lahore. The Consulate of Pakistan in Birmingham has been very helpful in sorting out the visas of the members of the touring team within just a couple of days”.
“We have also made sure that they have some downtime so that they can visit Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Fort, Minar e Pakistan etc so they can have a better understanding of Pakistani culture and history. The young players are very excited, a couple of players from Warwickshire have started in PSL also a few years ago an MCC squad led by Kumar Sangakkara toured Pakistan also had players from the club so they also gave positive feedback about the safety and security of players”, Rafaqat added additional.
The touring squad is made up of twelve gamers and 4 officers headed by Warwickshire CCC’s high-performance supervisor Paul Greetham who advised Geo that they all the time used to take gamers to locations like Sri Lanka and UAE for pre-season preps to allow them to expertise the difficult environments, tour to Pakistan will little question be extraordinarily difficult for younger gamers however in the long term will assist them to develop a powerful character.
“I think taking a group of players out to a place where they really got no knowledge of that there’s a lot of unknown it’s got real benefits so you start to see players in a slightly different light. You see a lot of character development, even in the space of two weeks players going out there facing significant challenges, different playing conditions, different types of environment and ethos around them and then some players step up to that challenge so you learn a lot about players and it will benefit them a great deal but it also benefits us in terms of developing them as players. We’ve always decided to take our best young players away to some very challenging places and countries. Especially those countries who have not only rich cricketing culture but also a real challenge for them”.
Since a lot of the gamers need to attend their instructional institutes the tour has been scheduled across the February mid-term holidays. Gamers are set to remain in Lahore from 12-24 Feb. However Paul is hopeful on the again of the success of the tour the membership will plan extra excursions of the primary staff in addition to the ladies’s staff sooner or later.
“I think this is a great way of exploring so the idea is taking a group out here with an exciting itinerary which can hopefully pave the way for future visits of our first team squad the men’s and of course the women as well. Pakistani women have got fantastic side themselves so both of our professional groups men and women look to travel overseas most years and so this will open the opportunity of potentially to explore Pakistan as another really viable venue”.
The Consulate of Pakistan has additionally been very instrumental in aiding and facilitating the required journey preparations for the touring squad. Bukhtawar Mir, Vice Consul at Pakistan Consulate Birmingham mentioned that it is a nice alternative for the younger cricketers to not solely benefit from the wealthy tradition of cricket in Pakistan but in addition the cricketing services that are of worldwide requirements.
“This tour will prove very beneficial for the Warwickshire club as well as Pakistan cricket. This can lead other county clubs to visit Pakistan not just to play cricket but also experience the amazing cricketing facilities, culture, hospitality and nation’s unparalleled passion for cricket”. Since this tour has been introduced many different county golf equipment have expressed their curiosity in organising such excursions so as soon as that is over doubtless this can immediate different golf equipment to ship their groups to Pakistan which will probably be good for Pakistan’s picture and cricket.
Our main intention on the Pakistan Consulate in Birmingham is to completely facilitate this sort of actions and encourage and promote the constructive contribution of the British Pakistani neighborhood”.
