The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) CEO Wasim Khan, on The Curtly & Karishma Show on Youtube, highlighted the importance of Test cricket’s return to Pakistan after 10 years claiming that it was the true benchmark or health check for any country.

The 50-year-old revealed that Pakistan had potentially lost a generation of cricket fans during their nomadic period.

“I think the big thing for us was to get international cricket to Test cricket back after 10 years. It was a huge thing for the nation. Playing in the UAE in front of empty crowds, we were losing a generation of fans of cricketers potentially because they could see their heroes play. So to actually get Test cricket back, I mean white ball cricket is great but the benchmark or health check of any country is Test cricket for me. Getting it back was a huge achievement for us and that was a goal we set for ourselves two years ago,” Khan said.

The high-ranking PCB official listed down the future home series that are on the cards for Pakistan.

“We just had South Africa and we have New Zealand and England coming in later this year, Australia early next year and of course the West Indies at the back end of this year and then we have England coming back for a full series next year. It is a huge thing and we are looking at how things used to be and how it is now. I think the one thing for us is that there was no social media back in our day,” he said.

ALSO READ: PSL 6: PCB to use scientific methods to avoid ‘bubble trouble’

Meanwhile, West Indies’ legendary former pacer Curtly Ambrose stated that he was really happy with cricket’s return to the country while sharing his own experience of visiting Pakistan last year.

“I was really really happy to know that cricket is being played again in Pakistan after so many years. I myself was in Karachi last year in January, just before the Covid hit. I spent four to five days there and I really enjoyed it. I hadn’t been to Pakistan since 1997 when I was still playing. So I was really happy to be there and enjoyed myself and was really happy to know that Pakistan is hosting cricket again. The PSL being cancelled is a bit of a disappointment. But I’m quite sure that things will work out and it will resume as they have said in June. I am looking forward to that,” Ambrose said.