The head coach of National Cricket Academy (NCA) Mohammad Akram on Friday expressed hope that while all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez will be cleared to bowl in the World Cup-2015, banned off-spinner Saeed Ajmal will also stage a come back soon as lot of cricket is still left in him.
In a media talk here, Akram said Hafeez had just returned from India after appearing in the bio-mechanic Test and hopefully he would clear it to become available for the Pakistan team in the upcoming World Cup which will staged in Australia-New Zeland from next month.
“Hafeez is a wise cricketer and an experienced one and he knows very well where he stands now and how much he needs to work hard. But I am hopeful about his clearance as a bowler for the World Cup,” said Akram.
Commenting on Saeed’s future in the game, Akram said there was still sometime before he could make a comeback to international cricket, the off-spinner was good enough to serve Pakistan for many more years to come. “Pakistan needs a bowler of Saeed Ajmal’s qualities and calibre, especially on the Asian pitches and in the UAE,” he said. “I think Saeed has done lot of hard work to remodel his bowling action and he has developed some new deliveries. He has attained the world No.1 position in the past, and now he wishes to come back into the national team while keeping his high profile status intact instead of being a liability.”
“Now Saeed has reduced his arm-bend from 48 degree to 13, so it is remarkable recovery, happened due to hard work the bowler has been doing for the last three months.
“Saeed needs more time to get control on his bowling action before appearing for a final bio mechanics test,” said Akram. “In the next three days, we will sit to take a decision to send Saeed for his final test in about two weeks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Akram claimed positive results were coming in from the fitness tests conducted on the national team players. “The last time the fitness tests were conducted in September, the fitness level of players was at 53 per cent but it is now touching 60 per cent,” he said. “Once the players will achieve the fitness level of 70 per cent, a remarkable difference will be seen on the field,” he claimed.
To a question that a good number of cricketers were either injured or unfit during the recent series played in the UAE, Akram said injuries were part and parcel of the game but as Pakistan had played three high-profile series against Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand successively, the injuries were only natural. “However, the general fitness levels of the players have improved and rarely did we see bowlers or batsmen leaving the field due to fatigue or cramps in the recent series.”
When asked why Pakistan had failed to produce an effective fast bowler during his tenure of two years as bowling coach and now as the NCA head coach, Akram defended his position and said: “No coach in the world can produce a fast bowler but he has to groom them from the available resources and I am doing just that.”
He disclosed the PCB had decided to launch a website which will give a fair chance to any cricketer who believes he has been ignored by the national, regional or club selectors, to send his video which will be thoroughly examined and assessed at the NCA.
He said the PCB had also devised a plan to start fitness tests of players at under-17 level. He said an emerging camp would also be held at the NCA in which the skills of prominent cricketers from the Penantagular Cup would further be polished.