**Inzamam says ****Rhodes ****to spend one week with ****Pakistan **team
By Waheed Khan
KARACHI: Pakistan cricket team’s captain Inzamam-ul-Haq indicated on Tuesday he was not very enthusiastic about having over South African Jonty Rhodes as a fielding consultant prior to the tour of England from late June.
Inzamam told ‘The News’ that if Rhodes does accept an invitation from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to take up the assignment as the fielding consultant he would spend just one week with the senior players.
“He (Rhodes) will spend one week with us and another with the under-19 players,” he stated.
The PCB has asked Rhodes, known as one of the finest fielders of his times, to carry out a two-week assignment in Pakistan but an official said they were still waiting for a formal confirmation from Rhodes “We’ve heard that he has got clearance from the United Cricket Board of South Africa but we are expecting a written confirmation this week,” the official said.
Pakistan players have come in for a fair bit of criticism recently for their inconsistent fielding standards although Inzamam has insisted they were working hard on improving in this department.
Inzamam said given the time constraint they would try to learn about some new drills and areas of improvement from Rhodesand then work on it through hard practice.
Former Test captains and greats, Imran Khan and Javed Miandad have hit out at the PCB for attempting to hire Rhodes as the fielding consultant pointing out two to three weeks was too little time for him to make any visible impact on the team.
“What can he (Rhodes) achieve in such a short time. As it’s I feel fielding is all about individual enthusiasm and passion. You get better the more you practise by yourself,” Miandad said.
Inzamam also disclosed that the national training for the important England tour would commence from May 25 in Lahore. “We’ve decided to have the training camp in two phases, with a break of five days between them. The idea is to also have a look at those players who’ve performed well in domestic cricket and for Pakistan A,” Inzamam said.
He said the first phase would last for around 10 to 12 days. The probables would then be given a rest of five days before reassembling again for the second phase of around two weeks.
“In the final phase we’ll also be joined by those players who are presently playing in England for counties and league clubs including Mohammad Asif and Rana Naved,” Inzamam added.
The Pakistan skipper said he was very happy to see some discarded players trying hard to win the selectors’ attention and particularly mentioned the name of opener Taufeeq Umar and pacer Mohammad Sami in this regard. “Any player who performs well we’ll have a look at him for the future.”
Inzamam also expressed his satisfaction over the recent announcement by Shahid Afridi to take back his decision not to play Tests till next year’s World Cup, saying, “He has done the right thing.”
The national team’s camp was initially set to be held in Abbottabad but a PCB official stated that this move had been deferred due to lack of facilities in that place.
Source: The News – Wednesday 3rd May 2006
If the above story is true then it doesn’t surprise me about Inzmam’s enthusiasm. He is known not to take active part in fielding sessions. One week of hard fielding sessions may be too much for Inzi to handle – he probably wants to do something else rather then take part in fielding sessions.
The issue whether 1 week is enough is a debatable – I personally don’t think 1 week is long enough to achieve any results or it will greatly improve the fielding standards. Rhodes was a brilliant natural athlete which helped him to become a very good fielder, similarly look at the Australians and South Africans most t of their players are good athletes which helps their fielding standards.
We unfortunately don’t have too many good athletes in the Pakistan team.
However – Rhodes may give new tips or new ways of training to improve the basic standard of fielding.
