We want players to be ‘civilised’: Alam

LAHORE: Former Pakistan cricket coach and the current director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Intikhab Alam has initiated a social welfare program meafter a leaked inquiry report stated that cricketers were uncivilised.

Alam was sacked as the coach after Pakistan lost all their matches against Australia and then appointed director of the NCA. He lashed out against players calling them ‘mentally retarted’ and ‘uncivilised, who do not realise that they are representing the country’ in front of the inquiry committee. Alam, as a result, wants to instil discipline in the players. “We want to induce a civilised character in the players,” he told The Express Tribune. “They need to learn how to represent the country, which only is possible when player has good manners and ethics.”

Alam realised that this was the actual problem with the players so he decided to add social welfare as part of players’ training with his coaching program. “We decided to go to the grass-root level. We emphasise all the departments of the game but go in and also include discipline among other things that make a complete player. Our club cricket training and coaching plan will help players get groomed in all spheres of life. I want the players to become proper professionals and well disciplined and not just be good cricketers.”

Published in the Express Tribune, May 11th, 2010.