December 12, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 26, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE,Dec 11: Former Davis Cupper, Rashid Malik has urged the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) to organise national camp without delay at Lahore to prepare for the Davis Cup Group II tie against Malaysia February next in Kula Lumpur.

In an interview with the APP Tuesday Rashid said solid efforts were needed to strongly prepare the side to achieve positive results.

Pakistan has been relegated to Group II after defeats twice to Chinese Taipei and once to China but salvaged its pride by defeating Syria in the play off tie to remain in the Group II. Pakistan qualified for the Group I after a decade defeating Thailand at Lahore in 1998.

“It is the right time to hold a camp to impart adequate high profile training to the players “,he said.

Rashid said the weather at Lahore offers suitable and ideal conditions for training and Punjab Lawn Tennis Association (PLTA) has already offered its services to the PTF for the hosting the camp.

“ We will play Malaysia at indoor hard courts and we have to ensure all possible steps in the training to beat our rivals “, declared Rashid who was the non playing captain of the Pakistan team which beat Syria.

Rashid claimed it was unfortunate that Pakistan was dropped from Group I and now the challenging task ahead of the PTF is to motivate the players to book a place in the upper group.

In the Group I, Pakistan lost its crucial ties to Taiwan and China because of absence of promising players in the side who failed to support Aisam ul Haq in the doubles and could not do fairly in the singles.

To a question, he said, Pakistan possible Davis Cup squad could be , Aisma ul Haq, Asim Shafiq, Aqeel Khan and Nomi Qamar.

“We need two talented players who could provide much needed back up to Aisam in the doubles and singles as well “, stressed Rashid who hold the unique distinction of representing the country from 1984 to 96 in the Davis Cup.

Answering another question, he said, he was willing to make a comeback to international tennis for double matches for the Davis Cup ties provided the PTF appoints him the playing captain.

“But in case if a player is dropped from the four-member squad I will be willing to act as a non playing captain for the sake of future of up and coming player “,he said.

Rashid has recently won three doubles title in as many national tournaments including National Grass courts at Lahore, Federal Cup at Islamabad and Salma Noorani cup at Karachi recently.

When asked about Pakistan’s chances against Malaysia, he said the visiting side holds 70 percent chances due to the standing of hosts in the game.

“ We cannot rely on one player, Aisam ul Haq and he alone cannot lead the side to victory in Davis Cup and we badly need two players of Aisam’s standing to achieve encouraging results and to stay in Group I “,he said.

He said PTF should work on long term planning to spot talent and to groom junior players to get due international recognition in tennis.

“Aisam is doing fine and he cannot do it for a long time and we have to groom a group of youngsters if we want to achieve excellence “, he said.—APP