Pakistan captain Younis Khan urged his team on Tuesday to take the form it showed in winning the Twenty20 World Cup into the Test and 50 overs arenas. Younis was mobbed by hundreds of fans at Karachi airport on Tuesday after returning from London. The remainder of the team landed earlier in Lahore. “I was always confident we could win this tournament once we started winning matches and got into a momentum. Our nation deserved a feel good moment in these hard times,” Younis told reporters. “We need to show the same consistency and the same winning mentality in other forms of the sport. My dream is to see Pakistan cricket at the top in Test and one-day cricket as well.” Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in the final at Lord's on Sunday, setting off a wave of celebrations in their troubled nation. Younis credited his team's win to his own change in attitude during the tournament. “I realized that I had to be dead serious as captain and senior player because T20 cricket is one of the most demanding forms of the sport. It saps the energy in just 40 overs,” he said. “This win is very important for us because it gives our cricket a big boost at a time when people were losing interest in the sport with teams not visiting Pakistan.” Speaking to the private Geo television channel, Younis showed disappointment over comments by the former chief selector Abdul Qadir, who recently resigned, that he was not a Twenty20 player. “I think I proved my worth as I finished top scorer for Pakistan in the tournament. But I still maintain that a player's abilities cannot be gauged in a Twenty20 match,” said Younis. In Lahore, hundreds of drum beating and flag waving fans returned home disappointed after they were unable to welcome the team because of tight security at the Allama Iqbal Airport. The players were whisked away through a side entrance. “We feel sorry for our fans who prayed for our success and they couldn't see us. But we had to follow the advice of the security personnel,” coach Intikhab Alam told Reuters. Police officials said they believed it would be a security risk to bring out the players from the main lounge. “We changed the plan for the team because of security reasons and drove the team to the national cricket academy in a special bus,” police official Umar Virk told reporters outside the airport. All-rounders Shahid Afridi, Fawad Alam and Abdul Razzaq did not return as they had prior commitments in England.
