KARACHI: A total of 32 youngsters, including seven who were part of victorious Karachi team, will participate in the NCA Under-16 Youth Development Advance Coaching Training Programme here at the PCB Regional Cricket Academy.

Former Test cricketers Tauseef Ahmed and Azam Khan, who are currently regional coaches of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), will supervise the three-week camp starting from Thursday.

According to a PCB official, Ali Zia, the PCB director academies, will be arriving from Lahore on the opening day during the players will be given detailed briefings about the coaching programme.

The selected players will be equally bracketed in two groups titled as Shaheen and Mujahid. Tauseef will take charge of the Shaheen group as its head coach while Azam will oversee the Mujahid group. Mohammad Masroor (assistant coach), Imran Khalil (trainer) and Imtiaz Khan (physio) are part of the Shaheen group, while the Mujahid group also includes Asim Rizvi (assistant coach), Rashid Qureshi (trainer) and Usman Ghani (physio).

Former Test paceman Saleem Jaffer, now a member of the Haroon Rasheed-led National Selection Committee, will also be visiting the camp which runs from May 28 to June 17.

The young cricketers were selected by the national junior selection committee headed by former Test batsman Basit Ali on the basis of their showing in the under-16 tournament.

Karachi, who won the recently-ended PCB-Pepsi Cricket Stars Under-16 title, provide bulk of the players, including prolific opener Haider Ali who made a record 249 not out against Hyderabad and 128 versus Larkana during the league phase of the tournament.

Runners-up Dera Murad Jamali, who were the most improved side, have four of their emerging stars in the camp. The remaining players are from Lahore, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Islamabad, Fata, Sialkot, Bahawalpur and Abbottabad.

During the initial days of the camp, there will be separate sessions for physical training and nets while one-day and three-day matches will also be organised to assess the level of coaching imparted of the players.

Trainees:

Haider Ali, Obaisullah, Tariq Bakht, Syed Mohammad Amin, Mohammad Usman, Aarish Kaimkhani, Mohammad Zahid (all from Karachi); Ali Imran, Osama Aslam, Mohammad Junaid (Bahawalpur); Fahad Hussain, M. Shoaib Ahmed, Abdul Waheed, Talib Hussain (Dera Murad Jamali); Attyab Ahmed, Ahmer Jalil (Lahore); Mohsin Riaz, Ansar Irshad, Zakirullah (Sialkot); Mohammad Salman, Mohammad Hasnain (Hyderabad); Salman Khan, Mukhtar Ahmed, Ahmed Khan, Aamir Zaib (Peshawar); Ehtesham Khan (Quetta); Mohammad Huzaifa, Uzair Abdullah (Multan); Khayyam Khan, Sanaullah (Abbottabad); Alamgir Khan (Islamabad), Shahenshah Afridi (Fata).

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play