Wasim Akram to coach Pakistan’s young fast bowlers

Wasim Akram, the former Pakistan great, has come forward to help the country produce high-quality fast bowlers and will conduct a two-weak camp for budding pacers in Lahore next month.

Over the last six decades, Pakistan has produced a number of great fast bowlers like Fazal Mahmood, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar.

In recent years, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif came through the ranks of domestic cricket in the country and were regarded by many as the best new-ball bowling pair in the world. Quite unfortunately however, both of them were found involved in bowling deliberate no-balls during the Lord’s Test against England in 2010 and are currently facing a lengthy ban from competitive cricket.

Having lost two of their premier bowlers, the Green Shirts have been struggling to deliver the goods in this department, with the likes of Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz not able to perform consistently.

Lack of depth in the fast bowling department was one of the major reasons why Pakistan failed to live up to the expectations in the recent Test series against South Africa.

Wasim however, is optimistic about the talent at the grass-root level and feels that the upcoming speedsters need to be polished. The former Pakistan skipper, who is considered to be the greatest left-arm fast bowler of the history of the game, thinks that Pakistan Cricket Board must enhance domestic cricket structure in the country.

“I’m sure talent is present, but there is no plan B. We don’t have good Test bowlers as proven in the South Africa series, where we were found lacking in that department,” said the former Pakistan captain. “The PCB needs to lift first-class cricket and find quality fast bowlers. Once I get 10-12 fast bowlers, I will work on them and they can be groomed to play at international level.”

Akram further added that international cricket must be revived in the country; otherwise, producing high-quality players will be very tough.

“Not playing at home is the key factor in not producing quality players. Until and unless you don’t play top quality teams at home it will be hard to find quality players,” he said.

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Mar 20 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.