Pakistan Test team captain Shaan Masood has refuted any concerns regarding the integrity of the men’s national Test cricket team. Masood made the comments ahead of two-Test series against Bangladesh at a press conference on Monday (Aug 12).
A journalist in the audience suggested honours outweigh gains from illicit activities like match-fixing. The honours in question referred to Pakistan Olympian Arshad Nadeem’s gold medal at recently-concluded Paris Games.
“I won’t ever question anyone’s intentions. You used the word ‘match-fixing’. In this cricket setup, I don’t think there is anything that points fingers towards that. I won’t ever agree to this,” Masood said.
“Secondly, you can’t mix formats. The World Cup is in the past. You have to look forward. This is a Test team. Even in the last series, we played good cricket but couldn’t win. Now, we have a good opportunity in the home series, we have to play our style of cricket and win matches for Pakistan,” he added.
Pakistan are currently fifth on the World Test Championship (WTC) table for 2023/25 cycle with two wins and three losses from five Tests.
They’d be hoping to win the Test series against Bangladesh which is being at home.
Labuschagne to retire 2023 ODI World Cup Final Memorabilia
Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne retired his 2023 ODI World Cup final bat on Monday (Aug 12). Taking to his official Instagram handle, the Aussie batter posted an image of the bat he used in the mega final, between India and Australia on Nov 19 last year, which was in a worn out condition with the wood scraping off it.
Labuschagne played a crucial role in Australia beating India by six wickets in the mega finale of the 2023 ODI WC, held in India as he remained unbeaten on 58, off 110 balls.