Ian Chappell wants to see more Pakistan-India bilateral cricket

SYDNEY: Former Australian captain and batter Ian Chappell has put his weight behind bilateral cricket saying Pakistan and India hosting each other would be much better than them playing a Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

In an exclusive interview with Geo News in Sydney, the veteran cricketer and commentator said that love for the game of cricket kept players united.

“It is ridiculous,” Chappell responded when asked for his views on India and Pakistan not playing bilateral cricket.

“I did a tournament going way back to 1996 in Toronto, where India and Pakistan were both playing and I remember talking to players from both sides. And I said why do you like to dislike each other? And they said, we don't, we don't dislike each other at all, we get on very well. And it was interesting to see how the teams mixed. But the one thing they said is the problem is the politicians. It's the politicians who caused the animosity between the two. And I just think it's damn ridiculous that you haven't got Test matches between India and Pakistan,” he said.

Referring to talks about the idea of having an India vs Pakistan Test at MCG, Ian Chappell said that why not, it is better than playing in UAE but he would rather like to see India travelling to Pakistan and Pakistan travelling to India.

“That's where they should be playing the Test cricket,” he said.

Talking about his connection with Pakistani cricketers of his era, the former Australian cricketer said that he maintains contact with Intikhab Alam.

“We've always been good friends. We were foes on the field. we were focused on the field but we sat around afterwards and we talked about the game,”

“And, I think the thing that unites us all is Australian players and the Pakistan players is the love of the game. We all have a love of the game and the other thing is, we had respect for them because we knew they could play and they had respect for us because they knew we can play,” he said.

Talking about T20 World Cup, the former Australian skipper said that it was disappointing to see West Indies not making it into the next stage of the T20 World Cup. He also shared his thoughts on Pakistan's performance saying that the way Pakistan played against South Africa was something he would always expect from this team.

“Pakistan are starting to play really good cricket. I mean, they hammered South Africa. That's more like the form I expected from Pakistan because I think they're a good team,” he said.

“Babar Azam to me is a very good player. And he's a very good player in all formats of the game and they've got good pace, they've got good spin bowling, they have all the sort of attributes you need to succeed in Australia. But they just got panicked in that game against India, and then to lose to Zimbabwe was something that a cricket team having that ability shouldn't do,” he said.

“There's got to remain some artistry in the batting and I think that's where Babar is very good. He's a terrific artist. And he likes to include artistry in his play, even in T20s. And I think that's a good thing,” said Chappell.

He also highlighted that the combination of improvised bats and shorter boundaries is something which he doesn’t like

Replying to a question, Ian said that there’s a need to have a balance between all formats of the game as the weight now seems to be tilted towards T20 Cricket.