'Jeet Ka Safar': Pakistan's 2009 T20 cricket team players visit US states

HOUSTON: A delegation comprising the players of the 2009 T20 cricket team — Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal and Umar Gul — visited different states of the United States under the banner of "Jeet Ka Safar".

On its arrival in Houston and Dallas, the delegation was warmly welcomed and many events, including a cricket match, were organised.

In an exclusive interview with Geo News, the former cricketer Misbah hoped: “The Pakistani team will perform very well in the World Cup in America.”

“Pakistan team has played in the finals in the last two World Cups, while at this time, we have all the resources and our team is very good at the moment.”

“The Pakistani team will always emerge as a powerful team,” he said, adding that the US ground and weather are also such that Pakistan can go to the semi-finals and finals and win the World Cup.

He further said that the team should be good, prepare accordingly and formulate a strategy. He said that fitness is very important in this regard, while further performance depends on it.

In response to a question, he said: “We have top-class bowling and top-class batsmen, but you only need a strong performance at this time.”

Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and other all rounders are also great, but we have to see how we perform as a team, Misbah added.

To a question about the US trip, he said, "Houston is having a lot of fun. It looks like we are in Karachi. There is enthusiasm among the people here and the way they welcomed them was indescribable," he added.

For his part, former player and coach Younis Khan sai preparations for the World Cup were going on in America and he would advise the Pakistani cricket team on the brand of cricket they should play. 

"I see that after 2017 I retired and it's been six years since I retired but the attention here is indescribable so our players should come to America," he added.

Rafa Ahmed, the organiser of the “Jeet Ka Safar” programme, said that the experience of taking the Pakistani team to visit US was very successful and he planned to bring Indian and Pakistani teams to visit US in the future.