‘Windies tour to be learning curve for young ones’

E-Paper | March 15, 2026

“I don’t know why we go round and round and come back to Miandad again and again. If Miandad doesn’t want to do the job then we must ask someone else for help.” —File photo

LAHORE: Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said Wednesday he hoped to use the upcoming tour of the West Indies to bring on new cricketing talent for the years ahead.

The team fly out to the Caribbean on Thursday for a tour that will include one Twenty20 international, five one-dayers and two Tests.

With express paceman Shoaib Akhtar retired and fellow fast bowler Umar Gul rested, Pakistan have selected left-armers Junaid Khan and Sadaf Hussain – both 21 – and 20-year-old all-rounder Hammad Azam.

“We have selected some youngsters for the tour in the hope that they get groomed and serve the country in the future,” Waqar said at the conclusion of a two-day training camp in Lahore.

Junaid has 167 wickets in 35 first-class matches while Hussain’s tally in 18 domestic matches stands at 90.

Kamran Akmal, dropped after his sloppy wicket-keeping in last month’s World Cup, made way for 29-year-old Salman Ahmed while veteran batsman Younis Khan, rested for the tour, was replaced by 20-year-old Usman Salahuddin.

Salahuddin, a right-handed batsman, has scored 1505 runs in 24 domestic matches.

“We are not taking the West Indies team lightly. We also have experience at our disposal and we hope to do well on the tour,” said former captain and fast bowling legend Waqar, adding that he hoped to see an improvement in his side’s batting.

“Whatever shortcomings we had during the World Cup, we want to overcome. The main thing is that I want the batsmen to show improvement.”

Pakistan failed to persuade former great Javed Miandad to serve as batting coach and Waqar said the team should look elsewhere.

“I don’t know why we go round and round and come back to Miandad again and again. If Miandad doesn’t want to do the job then we must ask someone else for help because it is not an issue of technique, it’s an issue of slight adjustment in batsmen’s scoring runs,” said Waqar.

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Bhushan

Apr 13, 2011 05:01pm

May be Inzy will do the job. Saeed Anwar or Sohail is also fit for this.

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Vaquas

Apr 13, 2011 05:25pm

they go in the hope that Miandad would agree, but why are you getting frustrated? He is the best batsman for Pakistan and world's best under pressure. That was his greatness that he even came to the camp without the invitation yesterday. Tell me Waqar, how would you feel if Shoaib Akhter is made the chief coach and then you are asked to be the bowling coach...You will not be inclined towards that or will you? So the problem is with the earlier decision, if you want Miandad to be the coach then Mr. Waqar you have to work under him...not the other way round. I doubt Inzimam or Saeed will agree either as all of you are from the same batch.

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Iqbal Merchant

Apr 13, 2011 05:38pm

I think we have very talented fast bowlers in this team.We have a great fast bowler as a coach.I would like to see our coach interact with our bowlers when we are batting. I have seen Newzeland bowling coach was doing this with their bowlers.Our bowlers should ask the questions during that time what mistakes their bowlers are doing and share their ideas with coach during match.Coach should sit with players to watch the video of each match and should point out mistakes commited by players in the match during the game and try to rectify it in practice.This process should be continue throughout tour and home games.If player do not listen then we have to give him couple of warnings and if he do not improve we should select someone else in his place.This kind of strict deciplenary actions are require to improve their performance.We should also hire a consulant for players mental toughness.

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Muhammd Saleem

Apr 13, 2011 05:52pm

Hire Dean Jone as batting coach. No need to argue about his competency. He had good relations with the Pakistan team and would love to coach them.

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Iqbal Merchant

Apr 13, 2011 05:59pm

Regarding coaches I have different ideas.Our problem is openning batsmen.I suggest to hire Saeed Anwar and legandary Hanif Mohammad and given them task of finding a technically correct bunch of openning players and given them good renumeration and enough time to select the best among the lots for our test ODI and T20 teams. .Same should be done with our fast bolers.Wasim Akram and waqar younus should be incharge.Fielding can be improve with the help of Asif Iqbal.Decepline and physical fittness can be inforce with the help of military trainer.We should also look for someone who can work on their mental toughness.Last but not the least a good Proffesional should be given a job of manager.We can achive our goal with this budget by giving merit and accountibility priority.We have different type of players in country.We should select specialist players for each kind of cricket.Nucleous of 5-6 players should remain the same of team.

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Mumtaz.Rizvi

Apr 13, 2011 06:04pm

There is no doubt about the abilities of the legent Miandad.He is argubly the best batsman we ever produced but it doesnt mean that a great batsmen can be a good coach,apposing the use of technology he didnt succeed to produce the outstanding result during his coaching tenure.Wether local or international its really the high time to look for some one else to take-up the job.

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shoail khosa

Apr 13, 2011 08:14pm

i thing Afridi is beating about the bush..he never bats sincerly even he knew the wc semifinal was do and die match. his batthing performance in all matches was poor; he should be made clear if he improves his all rounder performace otherwise get exit ticket!!!

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Najib

Apr 13, 2011 10:32pm

Best batting coach options: Ijaz Ahmed, Mark Greatbach, Brian Lara, Sourav Ganguly, Arjuna Ranatunga, Viv Richards, and Zaheer Abbas.

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waqar

Apr 14, 2011 01:13am

do not include hafeez in the tests.

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S. Malik

Apr 14, 2011 08:07am

Pakistan should have thought about it earlier. Its never too late. It will be good to have foreign more disciplined coach. Miandad was a top class batsman but never had been a good captain or coach. Injection of young blood in the team is a good sign and these youngsters should now grab the opportunity. I believe, Kamran Akmal could have played solely as a Batsman.

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EDNAN MALIK

Apr 15, 2011 12:40pm

We need a bating coach not a foreigner he should be a pakistani may be Amir sohail Saeed Anwar zaheer Abbas or any bat from pakistan serve minimum 30 test matches.He should trained player not doing some else thing like grouping in the team.

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optimist

Apr 17, 2011 05:48am

After Miandad the natural choise should be Inzimam and then Saeed Anwar. How about Mohammad Yousuf, has he retired from Test Cricket? Not Aamer Sohail or Zaheer Abbas, both have high likes and dislikes.

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