July 12, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 26, 1428

LAHORE, July 11: Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik wants his team to win the first Twenty20 World Championship as an unbeaten side. “We are working hard and I want my team to remain unbeaten while grabbing the Twenty20 World Championship,” Shoaib told reporters on the second day of the fitness camp at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday.

The Twenty20 World Championship, an ICC event, is scheduled to be held in South Africa in September.

In the last two ICC events — the ICC Champions Trophy held in October 2006 and the 2007 World Cup staged in the West Indies — Pakistan performed poorly as they could not qualify for the second round of both the mega contests.

“We have to improve our fielding because I believe this department will play a vital role in winning the Twenty20 Championship. We can save 20 to 25 runs as a result of good fielding and that is very important,” he insisted.

Shoaib said though India had rested some of their seniors for the Twenty20 World Championship, Pakistan would consider both seniors and juniors on their performances.

“We will select only those who deserve to feature in Twenty20 cricket and the factor of senior or junior will not be significant,” he asserted.

Commenting on the shortest form of international cricket, the Pakistan captain rejected the impression that slogging was the only demand of Twenty20 cricket. However, he added that the situation in the said format requires a team to possess different kinds of batsman who can play according to the quickly changing demands on the field.

He said the board was trying to hold a tri-nation tournament before the Twenty20 World Championship, adding the competition would help the boys prepare themselves a lot for the mega event.

On new coach of the national team, Shoaib said though the players gave their opinion to the PCB for the selection of new coach, it was board’s prerogative to take the final decision in this regard.

The PCB is to announce the name of the coach after getting the approval from its ad hoc committee whose members are meeting in Karachi on July 16. Geoff Lawson, Dav Whatmore and Richard Done — all Australians — are the three candidates for the post.