KARACHI: Pakistan’s former captain and all-rounder Wasim Akram has offered his services to train and groom young pacers in the country if the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is willing to utilise his services.

“I have always said that I am available to work with the young bowlers in Pakistan but due to my busy schedule I can’t do this full time. But whenever I am in Pakistan I am available to coach and groom the youngsters,” he said at a function held in Karachi on Sunday.

The PCB recently said it wanted Wasim to work as a bowling consultant with them and the former fast bowler also said that Pakistan had a bright future in the pace department as there was lot of talent available in the country.

“There is no dearth of talent in Pakistan, it only has to be scouted and groomed properly. And I am willing to do that because I would like to work with youngsters and train them.”

Wasim, who has worked as bowling consultant with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the last IPL edition, also felt that the present crop of Pakistani pacers needed to define a clear role for themselves in the national team.

“I don’t think Umar Gul is a spent force. He is a quality bowler. His main problem is that he is unable to define a role for himself in the team.

He is unable to adjust his bowling according to the different formats of the game.

“He is bowling the same in Tests and the same in Twenty20 and that is hurting his performance,” Wasim said.

Stating that Test cricket was the ultimate test for a bowler, Wasim said: “The bowlers will have to realise that Test cricket is still the ultimate test for any bowler. Unless you are successful in this format you can’t be really be regarded as world-class.”

Wasim said that with the rapid popularity of T20 cricket and the expansion of foreign leagues and international matches, the bowlers now needed to work harder to perform in every format.

“Nowadays cricket is very different from what it was in my days. Today there is so much professionalism and top class facilities for the players.”

Meanwhile, the former great also welcomed the resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral cricket ties. “I frequently go to India and I know for a fact that the Indian people are as keen as we are for the bilateral series to resume as soon as possible. So it is a good thing that India has invited us to play in India this year.”—Agencies