As the sport gains more and more traction in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has stated that it is willing to share its knowledge with Saudi Arabia.
Since the 1960s, when Pakistani and Indian ex-pats introduced cricket to Saudi Arabia, games have been held there.
Local clubs started to form as the sport matured and grew more structured.
In 2003, The Kingdom joined the International Cricket Council (ICC) as an affiliate member, and in 2016, it was elevated to associate membership.
The Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation, which was founded in 2020, has since planned a number of initiatives to promote the sport domestically and get national teams ready to fight against the best in the world in the future. However, the game’s genuine growth just started recently.
One of the bests is Pakistan, where cricket is the most popular sport and is played, watched, and adored by people all throughout the nation.
Pakistan has also long been one of the top performers in the Test, ODI, and Twenty20 rankings of the International Cricket Council.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Sunday, Najam Sethi, who assumed head of the board last month and oversees the South Asian nation’s local cricket and national teams, said, “We would be more than willing to go and help the Saudis put up a cricketing structure there if asked.”
The legendary fast bowler Wasim Akram, the current chief selector Shahid Afridi, one of the greatest ODI all-rounders of all time, or Pakistan team captain Babar Azam, the only cricketer ever to be in the top five rankings across all formats, are just a few of the world’s best players who call Pakistan home. Pakistan is also home to some of the best cricket teams in the world.
Sethi cited successful experiences in cricket cooperation with other nations, like neighboring Afghanistan, which has recently emerged as a top player in the world, in saying that “we have the expertise, we have the talent, and we have the knowledge and if the Saudis want us to help them, we’ll certainly do that.”
Pakistani coaches educated a large number of Afghan players, and they helped establish the Afghanistan Cricket Federation in 1995.
Since then, cricket has gained enormous popularity in Afghanistan, and players like spinner Rashid Khan and batsman Mohammad Nabi have achieved international fame.
Afghanistan, which is currently ranked ninth in the ICC’s ODI rankings, became the first nation to obtain full ICC membership after having affiliate membership in 2017.
To read our blog on “Shahid Afridi has been appointed as the interim chairman of the PCB selection committee by Najam Sethi,” click here.