da aposte e ganhe： Former captain Wasim Akram Monday said he was relieved and relaxed toknow that New Zealand have ‘temporarily’ cancelled their six-week tourto Pakistan
da fazobetai： 18-Sep-2001Former captain Wasim Akram Monday said he was relieved and relaxed toknow that New Zealand have ‘temporarily’ cancelled their six-week tourto Pakistan.The celebrated allrounder, speaking from Lahore over telephone, saidhe backed New Zealand’s decision because the scenario of Pakistanplayers was not much different from the Black Caps.”I have talked to the boys and to me they are not mentally focussed oncricket. They are more concerned about the security of the country andsituation arising in the aftermath of last week’s terrorist attacks inNew York and Washington,” Wasim said.The Black Caps returned from Singapore last week with New ZealandCricket maintaining that it would consider a shortened tour in Octoberif situation was conducive. But the hopes of a brief tour endedTuesday when the International Cricket Council (ICC) shifted October’sexecutive board meeting from Lahore to Kuala Lumpur.Wasim said the concentration of the boys had been distracted whichwould have hampered their performance and the team’s if the Test andone-day series had gone ahead.”We couldn’t afford to go into the Test series distracted,” he saidwith reference to Pakistan’s four successive home series defeats toZimbabwe, Australia, Sri Lanka and England in the last two years.The three-time former captain, who has 414 Test and 440 one-daywickets, added that he led the team to India in 1999 in more dangerousand hair-raising circumstances “because the government told us. And Ithink the government will not advice us wrong.”Wasim admitted that the cancellation was a bitter blow to hisambitions of putting his cricket back on track.”Naturally I am disappointed because I was determined to make amendsfor a lacklustre recent performances. I am in the twilight of mycareer and need to play in all the games to edge closer to Kapil Dev’s434 Test wickets,” said the 35-year-old left-armer.Wasim has been under tremendous pressure in the recent past. He wasincluded as 17th member for the England tour. He then went wicketlessin the Asian Test Championship match against Bangladesh. But hisinclusion for the Multan Test was again under controversialcircumstances as he had been initially overlooked from the 27probables who had been invited to a training camp.”I am not reviewing my career. I have decided to go by the flow andsee how things shape up. I am still keen and geared up because I feela lot of cricket is still left in me,” Wasim, who has taken just sevenwickets in his last five Tests, remarked.Wasim said he would play in the Patron’s Trophy first-classcompetition starting Sept 21. But he refused to accept that the fourdayers would now be the test of his endurance, fitness, form andstamina.”I don’t think that they will be my trial games. They are first-classmatches in which everyone would try to excel and contribute in histeam’s success.”There will be an element of competition between the teams and maybeamongst the star players. Of course, the pressure will be less ascompared to international cricket but the bottomline is that we areprofessionals and are supposed to perform against any oppositionwhether it be a first-class match or international game.”Wasim opined that the first-class competition would be morecompetitive this time and hoped that a few more talented players wouldbe unearthed.”I think it is a blessing in disguise for Pakistan cricket that allthe senior Test team players will be appearing in the Patron’s Trophywhich will help to pick some more potentially talented players,” hesaid.He agreed that the cancellation of the New Zealand series would denyyoung boys like Taufiq Umer, Faisal Iqbal and Danish Kaneria earninternational exposure which was crucial considering a back-breakingnext year’s assignment that lead-up to the World Cup in South Africa.”It’s sad that they will not be playing pressure cricket. But then inthe Patron’s Trophy, they will be playing plenty of games in whichthey will need to perform in different circumstances. It’s also alearning process,” he said.In 2002, Pakistan are to play two Tests against Bangladesh, host theWest Indies for three Tests, complete the two Asian Test Championshipmatches against Sri Lanka, host Australia for three Tests, tour SouthAfrica (three Tests) and Zimbabwe (two Tests) before appearing in theWorld Cup in February-March 2003.
