Younis fears children will abandon cricket

KARACHI: Children will turn away from cricket in Pakistan unless something drastic is done to save the sport, national team captain Younis Khan has said.

"You will see people losing interest in cricket and youngsters no longer having cricket idols to look up to," Khan told a foreign news agency on Thursday.

Pakistani cricket is in turmoil after a series of cancellations of tours by international sides to the country due to security concerns.

"The Sri Lankans were the first team in 14 months to come and play test cricket in Pakistan. That incident even left the players depressed and upset," Khan said.

"It is a gloomy situation for us with so many cancellations and postponements of test and one-day matches involving us since last year.

"I think the cricket board, our government, former and present players and other stakeholders need to sit together and come up with viable long-term proposals to keep cricket going in Pakistan", he added.