Pakistan former leg-spinner Abdul Qadir said the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to have a boot camp in Kakul will bring no improvement in national team’s performance on their upcoming tour of England.
The 60-year-old said that the main area of focus for Pakistan should be towards improving their batting and skills.
The outspoken player also slammed the PCB for recruitment of Mickey Arthur as the chief coach, when he was unable to take charge of the team immediately.
“What is the purpose of this boot camp? It has been organised to improve the fitness of players, but to me the most important area in which our players need to work on and improve for the England tour is in the batting and skills department,” he said.
“I don’t know what was the purpose of having this boot camp with so much stress on fitness,” he added.
The former leg-spinner recommended that instead of sending players to boot camp, they should have been trained on seaming pitches, similar to the ones in England.
“It would have been far more sensible to prepare four or five seaming pitches in Lahore or any other venue and have the probable for the tour play proper four-day matches among themselves,” he said.
“These matches on pitches similar to what we should encounter in England would have helped our players prepare properly for the coming Test series where our batting will be the most vulnerable.”
Qadir, who was chief selector when Pakistan won World T20 in 2009, also criticised newly-appointed head coach Mickey Arthur for not joining the national side at the camp.
“I don’t know when Arthur will be able to take charge. Might be few days before the team leaves for England,” he said.
“What can one expect him to deliver? It was necessary for him to attend the camp to assess each and every player.”
Qadir was also critical about the recent statement of PCB Chairman, Shaharyar Khan about a lack of educated players in the team being the cause of the national team’s downfall.
“If that was the case then I must ask Shaharyar Khan what he has to say about cricketers like me, Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad, Inzamam, Muhammad Yousuf, Younus Khan, Abdul Razzaq, and Saqlain Mushtaq,” he said.
Performance is always fitness related. Look at who holds the record of run out related incidences in Pakistan cricket.? He might have been a very good batsman but a danger for others. I agree education has nothing to do with cricket but the uneducated cricketer should understand their limitations in english and try not to speak it. I am reminded of a painful episode of a pakistani crickter laughing when embarasing remarks were being passed about pakistan. Imran the captain was furiously looking at his countryman across the table. He knew the gentleman neither spoke english or understood it. I leave to your guess who the gentleman is. Now my final question to the gentleman criticising the boot camp. Don"t the english players attend fitness camps. It leads to bonding too.
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