Sport

Pakistan love their cricket in 'second home' England

July 29, 2010 Edition 2

Richard Sydenham

NOTTINGHAM: Pakistan would favour England as the team's official second home while they are unable to play in their own country because of security concerns, captain Salman Butt said yesterday.

"It's a lovely place to play cricket. There are a lot of Pakistanis living over here, so the support is good," Butt told reporters at Trent Bridge, where his team start a four-Test series against England today.

"The guys love their cricket in England."

Since a terror attack in Lahore in March last year, when Sri Lanka's team bus and that of the match officials were attacked by gunmen, Pakistan have had to play matches at neutral venues.

Pakistan played a "home" Test series against Australia in England this month in which their pace bowlers took advantage of overcast conditions to help them secure a 1-1 series draw.

"With the unfortunate situation which is currently going on, I think England is the best option," said Butt.

Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul claimed a collective 30 wickets in the two Tests with Australia, who were bowled out for a 26-year low Test total of 88 at Headingley.

England skipper Andrew Strauss accepted Pakistan were more acclimatised to English conditions than they would normally be, having had that series with Australia, but he urged his players to take control in conditions they are familiar with.

"The most important thing for us is that these are our own conditions, we're very comfortable here and we know what type of cricket we need to play in most conditions over here," he said. "Like any tour you go away on, the opposition have an in-built advantage. It's important to use that advantage." - Reuters

Tim Bresnan was earlier drafted into England's 12-man squad for ankle injury victim Ajmal Shahzad. The likelihood is, though, that Steven Finn, James Anderson and Stuart Broad will form the bowling attack along with off-spinner Graeme Swann.

Pakistan, after playing in front of mostly empty seats against Australia, will be met by much bigger crowds at Trent Bridge as 10,500 seats have been sold in advance for day one with the second and third days sold out.

Teams: England (from): Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan.

Pakistan (from): Salman Butt (captain), Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Umar Amin, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Hameed.

(Editing by Ken Ferris; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)

2010-07-28 15:01:50+00:00 GMT+00:00 (Reuters)