ISLAMABAD – Former Skipper Shahid Aridi while speaking about the Pak-Indiabilateral ties said sports can be used as a tool to improve relationsbetween India and Pakistan. Afridi drew on his recent experience of playingalongside Indians in an exhibition Ice Cricket tournament in Switzerland,suggesting that cricket could play a role in melting the ice.

“Due to lack of international cricket between the two countries, we nowplay either in the ICC tournaments or the events such as Ice Cricket,” hesaid.

He said politics should be kept away from sports. “It should rather be usedas a tool to improve relations between the countries. Sports is somethingwhich can play a big role in bringing peace,” he said.

Afridi captained the Royals in a series of two 20-over matches played at1800 metres above sea level and in below zero degrees Celsius temperaturesin St Mortiz, Switzerland.

The Indian players who featured in the event were Virender Sehwag, MohammadKaif, Zaheer Khan, Joginder Sharma, Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar.

“It was nice to meet and play with players from India after a long time,”he said.