LAHORE: The Pakistan cricket team started training at a camp here at the Gaddafi Stadium to prepare for the upcoming tour of New Zealand.
Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad was seen giving tips to Shahid Afridi as PCB chairman Ijaz Butt ended all the rumours regarding the former batting maestro.
Pakistan is to play three twenty20 international, six one-day international and two Test matches during the tour.
Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi and other players joined the camp which will continue till December 15. After that the team will take a break and assemble on December 17 at Karachi and leave for New Zealand the following day. Coach Waqar Younis is supervising the camp.
On the first day of training, team manager Intikhab Alam said that none of the players had sought the board’s permission to participate in advertisement shoots.
“The World Cup is just three months away. Players should only concentrate on their game,” he said.
“Our main target is the World Cup and the series against New Zealand will serve as a preparatory ground for the big event.
The manager said that the team has the potential to beat New Zealand given the fact that they have performed well against South Africa and the New Zealand team just returned from a defeat.
He said that T20 team will leave for New Zealand first and the Test players will join them later when proper cricket starts.
Intikhab further stated that during the camp training, the main focus will be on the fitness of players. “We want their fitness at par with the other international teams and as of batting and bowling, they have reached this level after performing to a certain level,” he added. “We have set a benchmark of fitness and any player below that level would be omitted and there would be zero tolerance on discipline,” he added.
“There will be seam and swing on New Zealand pitches,” he said. He also said that left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman put up a good show against South Africa and he will lead the spin attack. Alam also said off-spinner Saeed Ajmal was not very successful against South Africa and it will be good opportunity for him to prove his worth in New Zealand.
To a question, he said that Javed Miandad does not have any problem accompanying as he has been giving tips to the players after assuming charge.
Talking to journalists, Miandad said that he would be giving training to the team free of cost and would work on their fitness. He further stated that there would be no requirement for him to go to New Zealand with the team.
The Pakistan team’s 44-day tour would start with a warm-up game against Auckland on December 23. Pakistan coach Younis also arrived from Australia to join the camp.
The team held practice sessions in the morning and in the afternoon. At the afternoon session Javed Miandad was present to give advice to players on batting.
While commenting after the session, Miandad said: “It was wonderful to be back with the boys in the field. It is an honour for me to help Pakistan cricket wherever I am needed and I will make myself available whenever asked. I am looking forward to my work with the team over the next few days. They were all very energetic and enthusiastic. I am confident that before they depart on their tour of New Zealand, I would have contributed in helping them fine tune their batting technique.”
PCB bars cricketers from World Cup shoots in Malaysia: The Pakistan Cricket Board has refused permission to five leading players to fly to Malaysia for a commercial shoot for the 2011 World Cup as their trip clashes with the national camp for the New Zealand tour. Sources in the PCB said that the one-day team captain, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq had applied for permission from the board for the commercial shoot.
“But the board refused them permission pointing out that they couldn’t afford to miss any part of the training camp in Lahore because of the importance of the New Zealand tour,” one source said. The source said that the players had tied up for the commercial shoot before the dates for the camp were announced.
“Once the dates were announced by the board the players also realised it would not be possible to go for the shoot since the team first plays T20 matches in New Zealand after Afridi, Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar could fly off to Malaysia,” the source added.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has adopted a stricter approach to dealing with the players since the spot fixing scandal broke out and players’ new contracts state clearly they can’t appoint agents, sign contracts with foreign teams or go for commercial shoots or endorsements without the permission from the board.
