ISLAMABAD: Former captain Ramiz Raja believes that it will be difficult for cricket boards to survive for long without resuming the sport and proposed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to hold talks with other boards to find a way to stage matches behind closed doors.

Covid-19 has halted the cricket activities and holding of T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played later this year, is also doubtful.

“Cricket fans are now starved as the coronavirus pandemic has brought life to a standstill. I don’t think cricket boards can survive for long like this. They can’t continue to pay out salaries and expenses without having cricket activities. It will be disastrous for them,” the cricketer-turned commentator said on his YouTube channel RamizSpeaks.

“I’ll also urge PCB to think on these lines and hold talks with other boards to see how cricket activities can resume even behind closed doors,” he said.

“Unless a vaccine is prepared, we can only defeat it [pandemic] through social distancing and precautionary measures,” Ramiz added.

He noted that the government of Pakistan was trying to start construction sector in a bid to restart the economy.

“No country can survive in such a perpetual lockdown. This would be a disaster. I believe the cricket industry [also] needs to reopen,” Ramiz emphasised.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2020