November 25, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 1424

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LAHORE, Nov 24: Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq emphasized on Monday that playing conditions, non-availability and availability of key players would decide the outcome of the results in the home and away series against New Zealand.

Inzamam admitted that although the Kiwis will be without eight first team players for Pakistan trip the Black Caps have potential to give tough time.

The New Zealand team is touring Pakistan for a five One-day Internationals series from Nov 29 to Dec 7 without Craig McMillan, Lou Vincent, Scott Styris and Ian Butler, who withdrew on security reasons, and skipper Stephen Fleming, who has been sidelined with an injury.

Others missing through injuries are Kiwis’ premier strike bowler paceman Shane Bond and batsman Nathan Astle. Pakistan will tour New Zealand in December and January.

“I will not call them (New Zealand) a B team because they have the record of performing well whether they are playing with seniors or youngsters,” Inzamam said.

He said playing conditions in New Zealand would be different and his boys would have to work hard to produce better results.

Inzamam regretted scraping of one of the two four-day matches of the tour to adjust the delay in arrival of Pakistan in New Zealand. The delay was caused by the New Zealand team’s late arrival.

“We could have been acclimatized well with the conditions in New Zealand if we had more side matches. But the good thing is that they are coming to Pakistan which would help us to assess the capabilities of some of their newcomers,” Inzamam added.

Inzamam stressed that playing five One-day matches in nine days was a hard task and feared that it could cause fitness problems for players.