Heartening Sign Lanka Visiting Pakistan, Waqar Younis

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LAHORE (APP): Pakistan cricket team’s bowling coach Waqar Younis said on Friday it was a heartening sign that Sri Lankan team was visiting Pakistan to play One-Day and T20 matches.

“I think it is way forward to bring back international cricket to Pakistan and the tour of the Lankan team will serve as an inspiration for the other foreign teams to tour Pakistan in near future. With the visit of foreign teams, our cricket arenas will once again be part of international cricket activities,” he told the media after a training session of national probables here at the Gaddafi Stadium for the build-up of Pak team for the home series against Lanka later this month.

He said that players were getting good training at the camp to prepare for the coming One-Day and T20 matches against the Lankan side and definitely efforts would be made to win in both formats of the game. “This is a very important series for us in order to impart and enhance our team’s confidence at home and I think there is dire need to have more international cricket at home,” he said.
The former Pakistan cricket captain said he does not see any difficulty while working with former captain Misbah ul Haq who is the head coach and the chief selector of the Pakistan as in the past as well he worked with him with the Pak team.

“Misbah is very passionate about cricket. I know his mindset and we will be making collective efforts to rebuild Pakistan team and to prepare it to take on tough challenges in a decent manner,” he said.
The former speed king said his role is simple and defined to work for the betterment of the team and to groom and training pace bowlers and to develop a pool of nine pace bowlers for the Pakistan team. “I will also be working with Pakistan U16, U19 and Junior level cricket and I will be giving time to the youth cricket whenever I have free time and efforts will be made to fill the void in the pace attack,” he said adding “I also understand the art of spin bowling and I will utlise my previous experience as the head coach of the team find out quality spinner.”

When asked what difference he sees now and three years ago when he left Pakistan teams as head coach, he said a lot of things have changed, new changes have taken place in Pakistan Cricket Board, new domestic structure has been introduced and new things are being tested and all such is being done to bring improvement in Pakistan cricket to put it at the road of progress.

“There are certain options and ideas in my mind for the betterment of Pak pace bowling attack, to find new talent and I am so pleased to see that we have a lot of pace bowling talent and there are few young players with whom I am working and in six months time they will be on cricket scene “,he said adding “ Our objective is to work on our existing pace battery and to get their maximum.”

Answering a question on the retirement of pacer,Muhammad Amir to quit the test cricket at the age of 27, Waqar said it is Amir’s personal decision. “We should effort to broaden the pool of our players as players attain their peak in their career and retire and we must have their timely replacements.”
Waqar said Sarfraz Ahmad is a experienced captain and he should captain the side in the shorter versions of the game and the rest depends on the PCB to decide about the leaderships in longest version of the game.

To a question he said PCB has done an experiment by appointing Misbah as head coach and chief selector. “This experiment has already been done in other countries and we have to wait to see its results and I am confident that Misbah has the ability to deliver keeping in view his standing and stature in the game.”

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