LAHORE: Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, under the directives of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), chaired a meeting of regional coaches in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The meeting was also attended by Mushtaq Ahmed, the head coach of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore.

During the meeting, the extensive role of regional coaches at the national level and a strategy was devised to unearth the grassroots talent. Inzamam urged the coaches to look for the talented players in all three formats of the game and highlight it before the national selectors.

He emphasised on the coaches to highlight the potential spinners and all-rounders in the regions so they can be invited to the NCA to further work on their skills. He urged them to work on players’ fitness and on discipline, according to a PCB press release. He lauded the efforts of regional coaches and expressed to work together to strengthen Pakistan’s cricket. The participants expressed their views to bring improvement in players’ skill and gave their valuable inputs to expand the pool of talented players.

Mushtaq highlighted the recent talent hunt programs organised by the NCA in the remote areas. He briefed the participants on the ongoing programmes at the NCA where players from different regions went through extensive practice camps.

It was decided that the meeting with the regional coaches shall regularly take place in the future to chalk out a strategy to nourish talented players from across the country.

Published in Dawn January 12th, 2017