Afridi terms Pakistan’s win historic, stresses importance of consistency

KARACHI: Former captain Shahid Afridi has termed Pakistan’s win in the ICC Champions Trophy as one which will go down in the history books.

Speaking to journalists after attending an event here on Tuesday, Afridi said: “What Sarfraz and his team have done will go down in history. When miracles happen they are remembered for a long time.”

Afridi added that only a few people had expectations from the team to reach the semi-final.

“They won the trophy and I would like to congratulate the entire country and in my opinion, the way the Pakistani people treated those cricketers with respect, love and the way they were welcomed is the most important thing for me.”

More needs to be done

The former skipper stated that more needs to be done to improve the state of Pakistan cricket and there should be no complacency with this win. Afridi called for an improvement in the structure, pitches, umpiring and equipment moving forward.

“We should not think that after winning one trophy we have conquered the world. A lot needs to be done in domestic cricket. Winning and losing are part of the game as we saw with Australia and New Zealand. Consistency is the most important thing. There needs to be a system to ensure that Pakistan keeps winning trophies.”

Pakistan the lowest-ranked team in the tournament shocked the world when they defeated India by 180 runs in the ICC Champions Trophy final on Sunday.

Since the victory, there have been celebrations all across the country and the cricketers have been given a hero’s welcome upon their return home. 

This was Pakistan’s first ICC ODI tournament win since the 1992 World Cup. The team also had success in the T20 format, taking home the World T20 title in 2009.