"Playing in Airtel CLT20 an honour"

by Sethu Maathavan    October 07, 2009

"It's sad that no other player from my country is playing in the tournament," Sussex all-rounder Yasir Arafat said.

"But as far as I am concerned, I am honoured to play in the Champions League. It's a huge tournament and I would like to give my best," he said.

"Presently, there is a lot of competition in the Pakistan team. A lot of good all-rounders have come up recently. Two years back I made a great Test debut against India, picking up seven wickets and scoring 44 runs in the match.

"I was there even in the Twenty20 World Cup squad but unfortunately, I got injured and was ruled out. It's not that I didn't get chances. I got chances on and off but not consistently. This a question the selectors can only answer," Arafat said.

"Sussex was a great opportunity in my career. There are lot of all-rounders in the Sussex team, so they mainly use me as a bowler. They used me with the new ball as well as with the old ball and it helped me a lot," Arafat said.

"The conditions in Pakistan and England are different but as a professional cricketer you have to adjust. It takes a little time but eventually you come to terms with the conditions," he said.

"My father Mohd Idreez admired Yasser Arafat and named me after him and he christened my elder brother so because he admired Imran Khan as well," Arafat said.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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