Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi insists his team are happy to play their World Cup knock-out stage matches in India, despite earlier voicing concerns about security.
"It does not matter to us where we play our quarter-final. The biggest issue for us was to qualify for the knock-out stage and we have done that now," Afridi said."We are ready to play our quarter-final at any venue now."
Afridi kicked off a debate in Pakistan cricket circles earlier in the competition when he said that his team would like to avoid playing their knock-out matches in India and preferred to remain in Sri Lanka.
Afridi reasoned that playing in India would bring more pressure on the players because of the tense relations between the two nations.
"That is a thing of the past," he said. "Right now we are just happy to make the quarter-final and if we remain in our confident mode then it does not matter where our quarter-final venue is.
Pakistan's former captain, Imran Khan, had criticised Afridi for publicly airing his views on not wanting to play in India.
"If I had been in his place I would have announced we are ready to take on India in India because there is more pressure and expectations on the Indian team," Imran said.
India broke off bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan following the gun attacks on Mumbai in Nov 2008. Pakistani players have also not been invited to play in the Indian Premier League.
Pakistan's last cricket tour to India was in late 2007, although they have met in ICC competitions on neutral grounds.
India will host one quarter-final, a semi-final and the final of the World Cup.
Afridi believes his team have now come out of their bleak spot-fixing scandal period and are now purely focusing on the World Cup.
"The off-the-field problems for us are over now and the mood is confident in the dressing room," he said. "We now just want to end our group with a win over Australia and we have the firepower to do that."
source:-www.telegraph.co.uk
