da dobrowin： Former Test cricketer Haroon Rasheed, in charge of thePakistan Junior team headed for next month’s World Cup inNew Zealand says that fielding is one of their strongpoints
15-Dec-2001Former Test cricketer Haroon Rasheed, in charge of thePakistan Junior team headed for next month’s World Cup inNew Zealand says that fielding is one of their strongpoints.Haroon told Dawn that his boys had fared exceptionally wellin the field in the recent series against the Sri LankanJuniors whom they beat 4-1.”Good fielding was an essential part of our success over theSri Lankans, and I am now quite confident that the boyswould continue in the same vein in New Zealand,” saidHaroon. But Haroon pointed out that it was not just thestrong fielding they were banking on. “We have all theelements of a good one-day side and this squad does not inany way lack in competence.”The party of 14 named by the Pakistan Cricket Board, hasthree all rounders, as many pacers, two spinners, fivebatsmen and a wicketkeeper batsman. “All of them are quitetalented and keen on faring well in the tournament.”Haroon rates all his players equally, however when pressedas to who could hold the key in the World Cup, he namedpacers Najaf Shah, Junaid Zia and Umer Gul and captainSalman Butt.The coach however refrained from making predictions on theoutcome of the tournament. “At the under-19 level it istough to say who’ll achieve what because no side has beenwinning continuously in the World Cup.Pakistan have been drawn with England, Nepal and Papua NewGuinea in a group they should not face much difficulty inclearing. Still Haroon was not one bit complacent. “No sidecan be under-rated so we would consider Nepal and Papua NewGuinea as tough as England.”Meanwhile the first phase of camp which was set up at theRawalpindi Stadium has now come to a close and the playerswould reassemble at the same venue again after Eidul Fitr.The pre-Eid training, according to Haroon focussed onweaknesses identified during the Sri Lanka series. “We havebeen working on removing the flaws that came to the foreduring that series.”Also, target bowling and batting formed part of the playerstraining who were made to practice on seaming wickets.”We are training on seaming wickets because these are thekind of pitches we are likely to play on in New Zealandwhere the ball moves a lot.”The players would now also be able to benefit from theexpertise of former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd who isset to arrive in Islamabad on January 4 on a six-daycoaching assignment.