Sharjah: The doors of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium are open for India-Pakistan clashes again, Abdul Rahman Bukhatir says.
Speaking to Gulf News, the person who brought cricket into the desert by building the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, said: "India-Pakistan series is always welcome to be held here. However, it is not for us to decide. It is again a political decision but our doors will always be open for such a series."
Bukhatir's invitation comes at a time when both Pakistan and India are hoping to resume their bilateral series. With neither India nor Pakistan able to tour each other due to political reasons, a neutral venue had emerged as an option. "India is a very important team and if they are willing to come, they are welcome because there are lot of supporters here and we had some very exciting times in the past."
Bukhatir is hopeful Sharjah could again stage big tournaments like in the past sometime in near future. "India is the busiest team in the world now because of their IPL [Indian Premier League] and other tournaments. There are other teams too but we find the cricket calendar is full. It is very difficult to get the teams at the proper time to come out and play here. We will keep trying and trying."
A veteran cricket administrator, Bukhatir is delighted with the resumption of matches in Sharjah, which is on Guinness World Records for hosting the maximum number of one-dayers.
"There is so much of cricket around the world that people do not really care about what is happening. Today very few people turn up for Test matches but we can be proud of the fact that huge crowds did come for the Test match here. Had it not rained on the last day, we could have got even a bigger crowd," he said.
