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Published 03 Jul, 2004 12:00am

Waqar open to coaching Indian youngsters

ISLAMABAD, July 2: Former Pakistan cricket captain Waqar Younis says he is open to coaching Indian youngsters who are willing to learn and have the right action. "I will be happy to offer tips to somebody who wants to learn and had a right bowling action.

I don't mind coaching young players as I have played enough cricket," he said adding that the stress in modern-day bowling was on line and length rather than on sheer pace.

"Bowling in present day cricket is not limited to pace and aggression. The time of pace and aggression in bowling is over. Now the bowlers must concentrate on line and length," he said while speaking to Indian media at Chandigarh, according to reports available here.

Noting that none of the Test playing nations these days could boast of having genuine swing bowlers, Pakistani fast bowling great Waqar Younis said India needed to work harder to groom its young players in order to have a strong bench strength, a determining factor for quality sides in modern-day cricket.

Drawing parallels with world champions Australia, Waqar said the Aussie bench was stronger than the playing eleven. He said India had perhaps the best batting line-up in the world and Rahul Dravid was the best batsman in the side.

The former Pakistan captain said, "The top six batsmen in the Indian team are really strong." Waqar rated vice captain of the Indian team Dravid ahead of little master, Sachin Tendulkar.

Talking about Dravid, an unequivocal Waqar said, "He is the best Indian batsman." Dubbing India as the favourites in the forthcoming Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, the foremost exponent of the art of reverse swing pointed out that India had played remarkably well in Australia and Pakistan. Besides their batting strengths, the bowlers had also started to deliver, he noted. -APP

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