PCB announce Pakistan A training camp squad by Pakistan Cricket Board
Media Release – 18 May 2006
Fitness and Training Camp
On the recommendation of the National Selection Committee, PCB has announced the names of players selected for the fitness and training camp to be held at National Cricket Academy Lahore from 25 May, 2006 in preparation for the Pakistan ‘A’ Team’s Tour of Australia 2006. The names of players selected for the camp are as follows:
The first thing you notice is that there are more players beign invited for the 'A' side then the senior team. I wonder why this is - may be they are not too sure which final players to take or want to have a look at new players.
Also - guys from the under 19 world cup winning squad are also listed i.e. Akhtar Ayub, Jamshed Ahmed & Anwar Ali. I think this is a good move that they have been invited and hope they make the final sqaud. It is important that they get the right exposure and international experience as they seem very promising and potentially can make up the future Pakistan pace attack.
However, I stated before that they should have already been part of the 'A' side which went to Abu Dhabi but for unknown reasons they were not selected.
Also - guys from the under 19 world cup winning squad are also listed i.e. Akhtar Ayub, Jamshed Ahmed & Anwar Ali. I think this is a good move that they have been invited and hope they make the final sqaud. It is important that they get the right exposure and international experience as they seem very promising and potentially can make up the future Pakistan pace attack.
However, I stated before that they should have already been part of the 'A' side which went to Abu Dhabi but for unknown reasons they were not selected.
The selection of the three pacers from U-19 is certainly a very fine thinking. Even though they might not get a chance to play in those conditions, the tour itself has the capability to serve them it's useful purpose. A few more of these and we are bound to see at least one of them in our National squad sooner or later. I'd rather have them get selected for 'A' team first, as oppose to making a long-hop and forcing them to jump straight to International level, which could very well put an end to their collective careers.
As you have mentioned Rock_Express Bhai, they should have been a part of Abu Dhabi's squad as well. We need to get them as much exposure in as little time as possible. With the current downfall of Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akhtar standing past his prime and on the verge of the latter part of his career, the last thing we need from the PCB is to stamp their envelopes as incompetent while allowing those trundlers from domestics inside the team solely due to their 'high-profile connections'.
As you have mentioned Rock_Express Bhai, they should have been a part of Abu Dhabi's squad as well. We need to get them as much exposure in as little time as possible. With the current downfall of Mohammad Sami and Shoaib Akhtar standing past his prime and on the verge of the latter part of his career, the last thing we need from the PCB is to stamp their envelopes as incompetent while allowing those trundlers from domestics inside the team solely due to their 'high-profile connections'.
True.
I am not sure how many matches will be played on their Australian tour. Like you stated I am also not sure whether all of them will get the opportunity to play down-under because there may not be enough games for them to play in.
Also not sure what the plans are for the ‘A’ side after the Australian tour but certainly the PCB should be organsing more overseas tours in order to give them exposure on different conditions. If the PCB has so much money that they can hire the likes o Rhodes for 14 days which may not produce anything why can’t they use this sort of money and send their ‘A’ sides and junior teams on overseas tours and invest in the future?
It seems to me that when we have a good player or players at a given time, the PCB seems to take them for granted and doesn’t seem to do much to replace them. What I mean by this is that when Wasim & Waqar were playing and brought so much success to the Pakistan team, the PCB may have thought these guys can go on for ever. However as we all know this is not the case and one day everything has to end and didn’t seem to have paid much attention for their replacement. OK we may have had Shoaib Akhtar come on the scene when Wasim & Waqar were playing. To me that was just luck that they managed to find a player of that pace/quality or was it PCB’s effort in finding him?
We know have situation where Shoaib Akhtar seems to get injured frequently and doesn’t have too many good years left in him. It is important that we have the replacement for him when he finally retires and this means grooming your best talent properly.
I know a lot of the Pakistani fans are excited as to how good Asif is and I am not denying the fact he isn’t. However, he has lot to prove especially on overseas tours and I think he has the ability to do so, but there is always the possibility success may go to his head and he may not end up the same bowler any more.
The first thing I noticed was Yasir Hameed being RIGHT at the bottom of the list. Wonder what the board is trying to prove here as this can't be a coincidence :D
… I was actually scrolling through the list looking to see if Yasir has been dropped 