DUBAI: Islamabad United coach and former Australian cricketer Dean Jones has said he will travel to Lahore with his team if it qualifies for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final.

Jones said, “I’ll be going but it’s up to the other players what they do.”

United coach said that the players were waiting for security officials to give them a proper briefing regarding the situation.

“We’re yet to sit with the security people to get proper briefing. Until we do that, players can’t make the decision,” he added.

To a question about his experience in both editions of PSL, he said, “It’s been great. I think cricket has improved this year probably five to 10 per cent and fielding has been very good.”

Jones said that they were in a similar position last year in the tournament as they are now and his team was looking forward to performing well against Karachi Kings and Quetta Gladiators.

Talking about the PSL scandal, he said, “Everyone knows we’ve had few whacks. A couple of our boys had to leave and it left a few holes. But we’re starting to get organised.”

He said the team was fortunate that the incident happened early in the tournament which gave them time to reorganise.

“Fortunately, it happened early in the tournament and not late. We just have to wait and see what happens in the hearing. Hopefully, for them everything is clean and they can get on with their lives and play but if they are guilty, they should expect the worst,” he added.

Praising his fast bowlers’ performance against Lahore Qalandars, Jones said, “The bowling of Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Sami to Brendon McCullum was just riveting TV. Those first six overs, you couldn’t go anywhere. I hope that type of cricket would continue.”

He urged the cricketing community in Pakistan not to get too excited this early about all-rounder Shadab Khan as, despite being very talented, he was very young at this level.

“He’s just a boy. Let’s not think too much of him at the moment. He’s a magnificent fieldsman. We’ve had to straighten up his run-up and adjust his technique a little bit.”

Praising Shadab’s quick-learning abilities, Jones said, “Believe it or not, he changed his technique about 30 per cent inside a week. He’s been practising and working on his delivery stride. I find it very hard to pick him.”

To a question about the standard of PSL and comparing it with other T20 leagues, he said that it was right up there.

“You’ve got four overseas players for starters. In comparison, BPL only has two. So it has to be better. It will get better and hopefully, in years to come we’ll play in Pakistan and showcase the best talent in the world.”

He also praised the fielding standard of PSL.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2017