Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan here the other day said the absence of educated players in the national team was one of the main reasons for their poor performance in recent tournaments.
Addressing the media, the chairman said that presently only Test captain Misbahul Haq is an educated graduate in the team.
The 82-year-old also accepted partial blame for this and said that the PCB would rectify this problem by encouraging educated players as well as grooming the existing ones.
The PCB chief also admitted that the board would not make any compromises on disciplinary issues and pursue the current level of commitment towards fitness of players. “Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal have not been selected because of disciplinary issues and we want to make it clear that in the future we are not going to compromise on discipline or fitness,” he said. “That is why we have had fresh fitness tests and now have the boot camp under the supervision of military trainers in Kakul before the team leaves for England,” he added.
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Regarding Mudassar Nazar’s appointment as president regional cricket academies, Shaharyar Khan said that he is the most qualified person to improve grassroot cricket in the country.
The chairman also spoke about inviting the Afghanistan cricket team to Quetta, praising the recent improvement in the security situation. “The security situation has improved in Balochistan and we are planning to set up a full fledged regional cricket academy in Quetta to tap the raw cricket talent in the province,” he said.
Read more: PCB considers inviting Afghanistan to revive cricket in Quetta