Speaking exclusively to PakPassion.net earlier today, former hard hitting Pakistan middle order batsman Ijaz Ahmed stated that he was looking forward to his dual role as National selector and NCA coach.

 

A revised selection committee and new chairman of selectors was announced today by the PCB and Ijaz stated to PakPassion “yes I will be performing the role of national selector and will also continue with the role of coach at the Lahore National Academy”. “I specifically mentioned to the PCB that I wanted to continue my role at the National Cricket Academy working with the up and coming talent in Pakistan, especially players of the calibre of Umar Akmal, Umar Amin and Mohammad Talha etc”. “I’m very pleased and grateful to the PCB that they accepted my request”.

 

When asked what his immediate plans were, Ijaz stated “I will accompany the Pakistan “A” squad on their forthcoming tour to Sri Lanka working as one of the team of coaches for that very important and difficult tour”.

 

When asked about what his specific plans were, Ijaz commented that “Pakistan has immense talent, but the role of the coaches like myself isn’t always necessarily to work on the up and coming players techniques, more importantly its to work on the mental aspect of the game and make them mentally ready for international cricket and make them aware of what challenges they can expect at international level and to pass on our experience and what we learnt onto them”.

 

Ijaz continued “Academy and “A” tours like the forthcoming Sri Lanka series and the ongoing “A” series in Australia are absolutely vital to the progress and development of the upcoming talent in Pakistan and I have mentioned to the NCC directors at the PCB that there is no point in organising academy tours to Bangladesh, Kenya, Zimbabwe and UAE as those tours only serve to benefit the opposition teams and there is very little gained for the Pakistani players in those tours”. “Instead the PCB should definitely be organising more “A” tours to Sri Lanka, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England as the younger players will benefit greatly from experiencing the varied conditions in those countries, the atmosphere in grounds like Brisbane and the pressure of playing against high quality opposition”.

 

Ijaz when asked about Pakistan’s shock defeat against Sri Lanka in the first test at Galle stated “the Pakistani batsmen that were set in the last innings should have made sure that they dug in and saw Pakistan home” “If Pakistan had batted for around half an hour and not lost a wicket then Sri Lanka’s heads would have dropped and Pakistan could have taken advantage of that” “It was a very disappointing defeat and I blame it on the Pakistani mindset going into that last day where they obviously thought that the match was already won and they went into the days play in a very relaxed frame of mind”.

 

Ijaz then spoke about the role of the current senior coaches accompanying the Pakistan team, Intikhab Alam and Aaqib Javed. Ijaz who was part of the 1992 World Cup winning squad stated that “the Pakistan senior team definitely needs a batting/fielding coach, someone who can combine the roles of working with the batsmen and improving the teams fielding, as for the past 30 years Pakistan’s weakness has been the batting and fielding. I have spoken to the PCB about this and they are fully aware of my views on this matter”.