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sPoRts saturday, 6 April, 2013
england can dominate world cricket: cook
This is a balanced squad which will provide the selectors with strong options in all areas. – Geoff Miller
akram To fIne-Tune PakIsTan fasT Bowlers LAHoRE: PCB COO Mr. Subhan Ahmed, Ufone Chief Commercial Officer Salman Wassay and Wasim Akram at MoU signing ceremony. StaFF photo
LAHORE StAff rEport
LoNDoN: England captain Alastair Cook believes his team could be on the verge of a period of sustained dominance which would peak with a World Cup triumph in two years. Cook is confident England's recent lacklustre displays in the drawn Test series against New Zealand were just a blip that will soon be forgotten as they head into a frenetic programme over the next few months. England play New Zealand in a Test series rematch then host the limited overs Champions Trophy and the Ashes Test series before heading to Australia for a second Ashes campaign. Cook's men will be back in Australia and New Zealand for the 2015 World Cup and the opening batsman is convinced a good run over the next year can be the catalyst for England to win the tournament for the first time. “We haven't won an ICC 50over event so that is certainly a priority,” Cook said on Friday. “We've got the tournament here in our home conditions which we hope to make the most of and then in two years' time there is the World Cup. We haven't won that either. “They are two big tournaments coming up and we have certainly got the team, if we keep developing, to have a chance of winning them.” The Champions Trophy begins on June 6 and England play in Group A against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. But before that Cook wants England to make amends for their tame showing in New Zealand. AgENCIES
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EGEnDARY pace bowler Wasim Akram will fine-tune Pakistan’s fast bowlers for the Champions Trophy at a 10-day training camp in Karachi this month. Three untested fast bowlers — to be picked around the country by a cellular company and the Pakistan Cricket Board — will join the likes of Umar Gul, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan during the April 20-29 camp. Akram believes it’s high time for Pakistan to find lethal fast bowlers to have a reserve pace armoury as he feels it’s easy to teach them how to control the pace and the art of swing. Akram took 414 wickets in 104 test matches before quitting the longer format of the game in 2002. He also took 502 wickets in 356 one-day internationals and retired from international cricket in 2003. He said that Pakistani bowlers must master swing bowling to win internationally, as he readies to nurture the country's talent at a key training camp. “I was disappointed the way our fast bowlers performed in South Africa, so I will try to teach the fast bowlers how to swing the ball which is important for performing well at international level,” Wasim said at the launch of the camp. Known fondly as “Sultan of swing” for his mastery, the 46-year-old left-arm fast bowler will train around 15 current and upcoming bowlers at a camp in Karachi from April 20-29. Wasim was invited to do so by the Pakistan Cricket Board ahead of the eight-nation Champions Trophy in England in June, after Pakistani pacemen failed to impress on tour in
I was disappointed the way our fast bowlers performed in SA, so I will try to teach them swing the ball which is important for performing well WasIm aKram fORmeR paKistan captain South Africa earlier this year. Frontline paceman Umar Gul managed just five wickets in two Tests while lanky Mohammad Irfan took two in two. Rahat Ali was the best with six wickets in two matches after going wicketless in his debut Test. “If someone wants to be a really good fast bowler he will have to bear with the scorching sun and heat. If he does that, only then he can become a good bowler and it's a continuous process of learning,” said Wasim. Wasim said that Irfan, the world's tallest bowler who stands at seven feet one inch, has to work hard on his fitness. “If he keeps fit then I am sure he can play for three-four years,” said Wasim, who took 414 Test and 502 one-day wickets. Wasim also expressed hope that India would allow Pakistani players to feature in their lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL). “I think politics should stay away from sports,” said Wasim, who was the
bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL until last year. “Since Pakistani bowlers are better than India's, it will benefit the Indian league,” he added. Pakistani players featured in the inaugural IPL in 2008 but India stalled all bilateral ties after the november 2008 attacks on Mumbai killed 166 people and were blamed on Pakistani-based militants. Despite a short, ties-reviving series with Pakistan in December-January, Pakistani players were not allowed to take part in the ongoing sixth edition of the IPL. Wasim will pass his experience of international cricket to the selected lot and the national team pacers during a Ufone-organised camp. U-fone here on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to invest into the cricket talent pool of Pakistan and to provide opportunities for the development and growth of young Pakistani fast bowlers. Under the signed MOU cricketing legend, fast bowler and former Captain of the Pakistan national Team, Wasim Akram, also the Brand Ambassador of fastest data network, Ufone, will host a camp for the bowlers in our national team. Alongside under the king of speed banner Ufone in collaboration with PCB will search for the fastest bowlers in the country. The activity will be carried out nationwide as the candidates will be selected from 8-10 cities over 5-7 days from across Pakistan and any bowler with a bowling speed of 140 kmph or more will be selected. To facilitate this grand activity PCB will extend full support for selection in
each of the cities and will also provide speed detecting guns for the selection of candidates. Under a wild card selection the top three bowlers will be selected to join Wasim Akram in Karachi at the camp being held for the top Pakistani bowlers and get an opportunity of their lifetime to be a part of this moment in cricket history. While speaking at the occasion, Salman Wassay, Chief Commercial Officer, Ufone, said we at Ufone take pride in offering productive openings to the youth, bowling has always been the strength of each Pakistani outfit and our nation would be jubilant at the existence of a couple of tear away fast bowlers in the team. This agreement is an effort from the fastest data network to find the fastest arm in the country. He further said that this activity can be the founding step for a long lasting relationship with PCB, and Ufone will continue to explore other avenues to further cooperate with PCB and conduct similar activities to cater to the needs of our young talent. While paying tribute to Ufone, Mr. Subhan Ahmad, COO PCB, said that this indeed is a positive step by Ufone. With this initiative we will be able to hunt hidden heroes and the camp will help groom them for the future of cricket in the country. He said that Ufone has provided the golden opportunity for the youth to benefit from this activity and play their due role on the national level. Towards the end of the program there will be a grand prize of Rs. One Million for the bowler who achieves the bowling speed of above 145 kmph. In case of multiple participants achieving this speed, the winner will be selected through another round or amount to be equally shared.
Forget the Ashes, Aussies must improve DAMIEN MARTyN
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HAT has happened to the Aussie cricket team? Their confidence has been knocked around ahead of the Ashes. India may have been favourites on the tour there that's just ended, but it's more the way we've gone about playing that meant we got whitewashed 4-0. The biggest worry is the top six. Only the captain, Michael Clarke, has performed at the level he should have done, and the rest just don't stack up at the moment. When we go to England the bowling will go OK with the big guys we've got. But we need a lot more runs, and to do that we need to get back to basics. It's a cliché but it's true. Our pool is running dry, to be honest. In the old days, three or four guys would get 1,000 runs in a home season, or 2,000 runs in county cricket. We're not seeing that any more. The selectors can't say to themselves, “This kid is standing out”, and they are picking players on the basis of talent rather than the numbers. Having said that, two of our top six, Ed Cowan and Phil Hughes, have been scoring heavily in domestic cricket. They deserved to get picked and they merit a run in the side. It's hard to judge them on the basis of what they've done in India, and it will be very different in English conditions. I knew Hughes got found out in the last couple of
Ashes series but I think that says more about England. That's what is so impressive about them: their gameplans and the way they do their homework have been just fantastic. But Hughes went away and fixed a few issues, he's trained hard with Justin Langer and now he's the leading run-scorer. You have to pick him. After another 10 Tests, if he hasn't done it then we'll think again. Our young batters really have to learn how to play Test cricket.
Take David Warner; he has come into the Test arena through Twenty20 and onedayers. He has had to learn how to build an innings. England's series in new Zealand has been an example of good, old-fashioned Test cricket with Alastair Cook and Co constructing long innings. We've got Langer and Darren Lehmann coaching the state teams now and it's great to get these guys back in first-class cricket, because hopefully they can improve our strength in depth again. Some kids will only want to play Twenty20, whether for the money or whatever. But they can't lose the basics, you've still got to hone your technique. We've got to coach our kids with the foundations – and stop them playing T20 at too young an age. In the old days we used to play club cricket all day Saturday, 80 or 90 overs, and then all day the following Saturday too. If Ricky Ponting was coming through now, he would still want to play Test cricket. Ponting's retirement has left Australia with a huge hole to fill, and now Mike Hussey's gone as well. So we've got to move on. But it's not easy. When the last generation of players all retired at the same time, everybody was looking for the next Warne or McGrath or Hayden. For a while it was a case of, “Who's going to bowl leg spin?” or expecting our keeper to bat like Adam Gilchrist. Warney has ruined it for
everybody, to be honest, and Gilly. They've ruined it for the next kid coming through, who's thinking, “Oh God, I've got to do that”. People say our spinners are no good since Shane. But Warney was the best; he was special. We'll look back in years to come and just think we were bloody lucky, basically. Our group of players turned into unbelievable cricketers, it was a golden era. There's probably been a heap of players who tried to be the next Shane Warne, but they just can't do it. So it's not a question of why hasn't the next Warne come along yet. He did inspire a lot of kids to play cricket in the first place. But it's a hard skill to bowl leg spin, and the wickets and conditions are not conducive in Australia now – even the SCG hasn't turned much lately – so the kids don't get the chances to show what they can do. I haven't really got to the bottom of why Hussey has retired. He has got a big family, and he doesn't want to spend a long time away from home. But he loves the game so much and he's still making runs. I was waiting for him to stop but he never did. Perhaps he will come back. It's interesting that the coach, Mickey Arthur, mentioned it himself, that they had asked Hussey and he turned them down. The coach could have said, “We're not going backwards” but he didn't. On the subject of
the management, they have taken a lot of flak for banning those four players for not doing their “homework”. The great teams I played in would have done their preparation but still, it's not as if no one ever missed the bus. Should the coach have taken such a public stance? It's a tough one. Because our group was more senior we kept it in-house and knocked our problems on the head as a group. My old skipper Steve Waugh has come out and said that it should be kept in-house. But now this is harder, we've got a young captain and a new coach, and the players are a little younger, so I think it was supposed to be a kick in the arse. Arthur and “Pup” [Clarke] both wanted to draw a line in the sand. They have said that it was a question of illdiscipline and slackness over a long period. It has certainly fed the media, and it really doesn't help if you are getting spanked as well, as we were in India. But then you might ask Mickey, since it had been going on for a long time, if he hadn't given them too much latitude in the first place. I know Clarke well. He's a good kid, he loves the game and he's a big thinker. It's a hard position that he finds himself in, though. He has played in the side when they were winning everything. And now he's having to rebuild the team, and it was very bad for him to lose Hussey. – The Independent