Rob Key: My advice to cricket lovers is - come and visit Pakistan

I am lucky enough to be writing this from Pakistan, where I am commentating on their Test series against Australia.

I’m having a wonderful time and have to confess that I simply cannot believe how wrong I was about this country. I’ve loved it. I had never been as a player — England U19s came the year before my age-group and I wasn’t in the squad in 2005, when we last visited — and, if I am completely honest, my expectations were low when the opportunity for this trip arose.

What I imagined was similar to many others’ perceptions in the West, I think. I was picturing seeing little beyond a cricket ground, a hotel and some traffic. For context, I am no Bill Bryson. I have been lucky enough to go all over the world with cricket, but I have generally been one of the least interested people in travel you could imagine. I am a complete philistine and know next to nothing about culture or history.

I was once within a few minutes of the Taj Mahal and couldn’t be bothered to visit. People have shown me pictures of their safari holiday and I’ve said, ‘Great, I could have Googled a picture of a lion’. It’s barely exaggerating to say that nowhere has impressed me more than Beckenham, where I grew up. In my book, the seven wonders of the world include WhatsApp, AirPods and the driver in my golf bag.

But Pakistan has completely blown me away. Of course, I can’t claim to have seen the whole country, but we’ve been to three cities (Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore) and they have all been stunning in different ways. We’ve eaten in seven or eight of the best restaurants I’ve been to, enjoying both local and international cuisine, the buildings are incredible and we’ve played some sensational golf.

Best of all has been the people and the