"It has hurt our cricket enormously. Teams have not been coming to Pakistan since 2009 and in all these years our younger set of players have not got the right exposure or opportunities to develop themselves," Zaheer said.
Well known for his penchant for big scores and one of a select band of cricketers to have scored 100 first-class hundreds, Zaheer said the absence of international cricket in Pakistan had stunted the growth of young players.
"It is a good sign that Zimbabwe came last month but there is still lot of work to be done before we can have regular international matches in Pakistan," he added.
The former Test batsman said he was honoured to be nominated for the ICC post and would try his best to assist the PCB in convincing the ICC and member boards to offer more support to Pakistan to revive international matches.
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Zaheer also felt that it was not a bad idea if the PCB worked on the lines of having an advisory panel of former players on the lines of BCCI.
"Why not it is a good step forward for India and I think the PCB should also give more responsibilities to players outside the board," he said.
Zaheer also felt that cricket had changed a lot but the art of batting remained ingrained in timing.