Manchester: Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has reminded all his players that the match against India is the one they should perform at their peak in order to clinch a place in history.
Minutes after Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that a match against Pakistan is just another contest, Arthur said that he has told his boys that they could be a hero on Sunday.
“Your careers are going to be defined by a moment in the game. You do something incredible tomorrow, you’ll be remembered forever,” is what he reminded his players.
Arthur revealed how he has gone about motivating them. “We’ve got 15 incredible cricketers in that dressing room, and we keep nudging them on how they would like to be remembered.”
His advice to them has been: “You’re the class of 2019. And tomorrow presents an unbelievable opportunity for you all to really make a mark.”
Responding to a query whether the Old Trafford tickets could have been sold out 20 times as 500,000 people wanted to be here to watch the action, he said: “I don’t want to say it’s the biggest rivalry in sport, but I saw some stats which said that the football World Cup final attracted 1.6 billion viewers. Tomorrow (Sunday), it is likely to get 1.5 billion. It doesn’t get bigger than that. It doesn’t get more exciting.”
Arthur has an interesting observation with regard to the points that can be gained.
“There’s always pressure in any game, and these games carry exactly the same number of points...that’s two points. It's more about the massive hype that’s been created by the media, really.”
The Pakistan coach is aware that his team hasn’t played the perfect game so far.
“We are yet to play to our potential. Our disciplines have been good with the bat, have been okay with the ball and okay in the field. So if we put the perfect game together, we can beat anybody and we’re confident of that.”
