LAHORE: Pakistan coach Waqar Younis on Tuesday said he wanted to earn respect and admiration of his fellows like he did as a player.
A day before the close of the camp training of the team, Waqar said: “As a coach I am giving the same commitment I gave as a player. The intensity and hunger has not gone down.”
Waqar, who was named head coach of the team in place of Intikhab Alam this year after a disastrous tour of Australia, was also confident that the present Pakistani team was capable of surprising everyone and silencing the critics in the tour of New Zealand and in the 2011 World Cup.
“I want the same hunger in the team because as a player they also have a responsibility. All they need is to give their best at the right moment,” he said.
“As the coach of the Pakistan cricket team I want to earn the same respect and appreciation as I earned during my playing days. Whenever I leave my position, I would like to do it with my head held high,” he added.
Waqar was upbeat that his players were capable of surprising everyone.
He said: “People say we are a young team and we have no senior players and a true leader. However, they forget that young players played key role in the
1992 World Cup victory. They also went on to become great players in Pakistan cricket history.”
“I see my job as a platform for providing exposure and the perfect conditions for youngsters to come into international cricket and remain there,” he added.
Waqar said he was a great believer in young talent and had done his best to adjust them into the team properly.
He added: “My job is to help the youngsters adapt to the conditions and pressure of international cricket and make them perform well. I am trying my best to use my experience and exposure for the benefit of the team.”
With the team preparing for the World Cup, Waqar accepted that his main concern is keeping the players fit.
“The players also have a responsibility to ensure they maintain their fitness for the World Cup while also performing well on the tour of New Zealand,” he said, adding that Misbah-ul-Haq, Wahab Riaz and Khurrum Manzoor have minor fitness issues but they were not of serious nature.
“Whatever experience I have I am trying my best to ensure that the players benefit from it. Human beings make mistakes and I am also prone to mistakes. But at the end of the day just how committed you are to you responsibility is what matters the most. The rest God is there to reward you,” said Waqar.
The former captain said that his biggest challenge at the moment was to ensure that there were minimum fitness issues ahead of the World Cup.
Waqar also accepted that under Javed Miandad’s guidance during the national camp in Lahore players became technically sound.
“Our bowling line up is a good one but the batsmen will have to also deliver consistently in New Zealand,” he said.
