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| October 1, 2005 | Saturday | Sha'aban 26, 1426 |
Australian A tour was in doubt after Lahore blasts: PCB chief admits
LAHORE, Sept 30: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has admitted that the Australian ‘A’ team’s tour to Pakistan, which ended last week, was uncertain to continue in the wake of two bomb blasts in Lahore.
“The PCB moved very carefully to persuade the Australians to continue their tour because such bomb blasts are minor incidents and there is nothing serious,” Shaharyar M Khan, the chairman PCB told journalists at a meet-the-press programme organized by Sports Journalists Association Lahore on Friday.
The chairman explained that the Australians expressed great concern over the bomb blasts because it shocked them as they were under the impression that Lahore was the safest city in Pakistan.
However, he added that the PCB managed to convince them that the visitors were quite safe as Pakistan was going to double the security arrangements.
He stated that there was no concern shown by the England and Wales Cricket Board about security for their tour of Pakistan starting from Oct 26, after the bomb blasts.
“I am going to attend the ICC meetings next month and will have bilateral meetings with English, Indian and Sri Lankan counterparts and I will try to satisfy the England board, if needed, to assure them of their safe stay in Pakistan,” he said.
The chairman said that the main area of concern for the Pakistan team ahead of the England tour was the openers, specially for Test matches.
“We, after the failure of Imran Nazir and Taufiq Umar, have tested Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, with different combination but still cannot find a dependable opening partnership in Test cricket, but the problem is not the same as far as one-day is concerned because we have additional openers in Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi,” he said.
Asked if the selection committee and coach Bob Woolmer were responsible for being unable to find dependable openers, Shaharyar disagreed stating that there could be other reasons.
He, however, defended coach Woolmer saying his overall performance was satisfactory.
“We played against India with coach Woolmer in 12 matches and won 10. But honestly we have yet to win a big tournament or a Test series with Woolmer,” he admitted.
He specified that when Javed Miandad was coach, Pakistan lost the home series to India but next year Pakistan managed to draw the Test series in India with Woolmer.
About rumours of change in the PCB set up, Shaharyar clarified that that at his end he was not making any changes but he could not say anything about the change if it was being made by the PCB patron.
“I was appointed for three years according to a notification which has also been gazetted but it is up to the patron to take any decision,” he explained.
He stated that Inzamamul Haq was appointed as captain for three series (up to Asia Cup in April) and added Inzamam was the best choice for a long period but he did not want to impose his personal opinion about captaincy on the board.
“If he remained fit, Inzamam is the only choice in current lot to lead the team for a long time,” he said.
He said that hopefully the next central contract with the players would be signed in a couple of days.
But he said that the payment to players under the contract would be given from July 10, 2005 when the PCB announced the names of 20 seniors players and 10 juniors and ‘A’ teams.
He hailed the performance of Pakistan ‘A’ and junior teams in the past and claimed a strong back-up for the Pakistan team was available.
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