Pak PM Imran Khan Hails New Zealand For Beating 'A Country Of 1.3 Billion People' In WTC Final

PM Khan lauded how institutionalization helped China become an emerging power in sport over the years and how a small country like New Zealand have managed to make a mark in the sporting world.

Photo Courtesy: AP

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday hailed 'a small nation with 5 million people like New Zealand' for winning the World Test Championship against India, which has a population of around 1.3 billion people.

As per census of India 2011, India, with 7 union territories and 29 states and population of 1,210,193,422 people, is the second most populated nation in the world, after China.

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PM Khan lauded how institutionalization helped China become an emerging power in sport over the years and how a small country like New Zealand, with a very good system of bringing up talent and polishing it, have managed to make a mark in the sporting world.

While speaking to Chinese journalists as Beijing marked the centenary of the ruling Communist Party, he said, "I watched on television ofcourse the Olympics in China and if you see their performance in the past 30 years, institutionalization has helped China become an emerging power in sport as well. A small country like New Zealand, of 5 million people, just won the cricket world championship from India which has 1.3 billion people.

"A country of 5 million people has actually won a championship against them because they have a very good system of bringing up talent and polishing it. So, countries which clearly have institutionalised better, they move upwards because the system of polishing the talent in the country is better."

New Zealand defeated India by eight wickets in the final match of the World Test Championship played at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. With this, New Zealand became the first nation and cricket team to win the World Test Championship title.

India had set a target of 139 runs for New Zealand to win in the second innings, which they easily achieved after losing two wickets.

For New Zealand, captain Kane Williamson scored an unbeaten 52 off 89 balls with the help of eight fours. Veteran Ross Taylor played an unbeaten innings of 47 off 100 balls with six fours.