Pakistani citizenship sought for Qalandars’ Ben Dunk

Commentator and former Pakistani cricketing star Ramiz Raja has sought honorary citizenship for Lahore Qalandars’ hard-hitting batsman Ben Dunk, who on Sunday trashed Karachi Kings with his match-winning 99 off 40 balls.

In a YouTube video, Raja heaped praise upon Australia’s Dunk for his blistering innings against the Kings, suggesting that Pakistan team would benefit from Dunk’s talent if he became a Pakistani citizen.

“Pakistan has long been missing a hard-hitter like Dunk,” he said.

“I think the Pakistani government should give him [Dunk] honorary citizenship. We should make him play for Pakistan because my wish is to see a Pakistani batsmen do similar kind of power-hitting. We haven’t seen any Pakistani batsman do this kind of hitting except for Shadab Khan this season.”

The report comes days after it was announced that West Indian star and captain of Peshawar Zalmi, Darren Sammy, will be given the highest civil award — Nishan-e-Pakistan — and honorary citizenship of the country by President Arif Alvi on March 23 for his “invaluable contribution to cricket in Pakistan”.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had taken to Twitter to announce it.

President of Pakistan Dr @ArifAlvi will confer the highest civilian award and honourary citizenship to Darren Sammy on 23 March for his invaluable contribution to cricket in Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/mn9AiLknB0

— PCB Media (@TheRealPCBMedia) February 22, 2020

On February 19, the team’s owner Javed Afridi had said the franchise had put in a request to the president to grant the Zalmi skipper honorary citizenship of Pakistan and requested PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani to pursue it personally so that the application is approved.