“The controversies in the last two or three months have inflicted severe damage on Pakistan cricket and it currently lies at its worst in the last 25 to 30 years,” said Younis. “The way things were handled and the situation with the bans and appeals did a lot of damage and therefore I tried to avoid controversies during the camp.”
The training camp for the 15-man squad heading to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup ended yesterday with the coaching showing complete satisfaction over the fitness levels as well the confidence in the camp.
“Our preparations were according to the weather in Sri Lanka where the conditions are humid, pitches are bit supporting towards the fast bowlers and batting under lights won’t be easy. So we created the same conditions here as well by practicing under lights to prepare well for the tournament.”
Doubts were raised on the fitness of fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar who was seen with a bandage around his left calf. Younis played down the notion that Akhtar was unfit but said the bowler needed some time to get back into cricket.
“When you’re out of cricket for a long time, it’s not easy to make a successful comeback but we’re trying to get him back into rhythm. We’ll try and get him playing in all the matches but if it becomes difficult for him the obviously we’ll give him the required amount of time-off.”
Published in the Express Tribune, June 10th, 2010.
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