5 things that have happened since Lahore attack
With the 1st T20I between Pakistan and West Indies, international cricket will return to Karachi after nine long years. Both teams will face each other in a three-T20I series from April 1.
Although the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team took place in Lahore, Karachi suffered the longest exile. Lahore, on the other hand, got to host four international matches including a 3-match T20I series between Pakistan and the World XI.
In these nine years, the cricketing world went through a lot of changes. And today Cricfrenzy.com would like to present you 5 things that happened since Lahore attack and since Karachi hosted its last international game.
#5 The transition of Bangladesh
The only T20I that Karachi had witnessed before going into an exile was between Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2008. Since then, Bangladesh have had a significant change in their approach to the game. A team that used to win against just Zimbabwe, came out of their shells and roared like a tiger.
Their good run started with whitewashing West Indies in a Test series in the same year of the attack. The Men in Red & Green then went on to whitewash New Zealand twice in bilateral ODI series, defeated England in two successive World Cups, one of which saw the Poms getting knocked out of the tournament in 2015.
Bangladesh also clinched victories over England, Australia, and Sri Lanka in Tests. They won ODI series against India and the Proteas, qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC 2017 Champions Trophy and played in the Asia Cup final twice.
#4 Pakistan lifted two trophies
Pakistan have never defeated India in a World Cup match, be it in ODI or T20I format. The rivalry between these two teams grew further as India went on to beat the Green Army in four back-to-back ICC World T20 fixtures from 2010 to 2016 along with two other fixtures in ICC World Cup in 2011 and 2015.
Although Pakistan defeated their fierce rivals in 2014 Asia Cup after winning the trophy in 2012, the sweet revenge for them finally came when they, after losing to India in the group stage, lifted the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 by beating the same team in the final.
#3 Mohammad Amir - fixing and resurgence
A young Mohammad Amir got involved in a match-fixing scandal in 2010 alongside Salman Butt who pulled the strings behind the incident. Amir was banned from international cricket for five years and then made it to the team yet again by showcasing his talent in the domestic leagues around the globe.
He finally wore the national team’s jersey again in 2016 during Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand. Surprisingly, from his debut to his resurgence in international cricket, all happened after Karachi hosted its last match in 2009.
#2 History turned a new page
With the retirement of the greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and many more, an era of legends came to a close. The players who ruled the cricket world made room for new faces to arrive and embrace the beautiful game.
Pakistan also waved goodbye to the likes of Misbah Ul Haq and Younis Khan. The whole team had to go through a reformation slowly since an international match was held in Karachi.
# 1 Afridi retired and returned and retired and…
Some might have gotten disheartened when Shahid Afridi’s name wasn’t mentioned in the previous point alongside the other legends. That is because this legend’s retirement was undoubtedly different from the rest of the lot.
Afridi, the evergreen, retired from Test cricket back in 2010 and quitted international cricket in May 2011 after losing to India in the World Cup semi-final. But we are all familiar with the Lala’s love for cricket, so nobody was surprised when he changed his decision and returned to the limited-overs game.
Afridi's love affair with retirement speculations surfaced yet again in the year 2012. However, he joined the team again and waited until 2015 World Cup for his retirement from ODIs to finally happen. Then after 2016 ICC World T20 he hinted to retire from the only format he was playing in but that saddening (!) moment finally arrived in January 2017 when he announced his retirement from international cricket.
