Bangladesh tour itinerary revised

Some changes have been made in the itinerary of Pakistan's next month tour of Bangladesh due to TV coverage problems. Pakistan will play two Tests and three One-Day International matches in Bangladesh.

The manager of the Pakistan cricket team Yawar Saeed said on Thursday that the team now would depart for Bangladesh on Jan2 instead of Jan 3. The last two One-Day matches will now be held on Dec 24 and 25 instead of Dec 25 and 26. The team will return home on Dec 26 instead of 27, Yawar said.

He said that the change was necessitated due to an international football tournament starting at Dhaka from Jan26. He said that the organisers were facing TV coverage problems of the cricket matches due to football ties, therefore, the itinerary had been changed.

Meanwhile, training camp for the team resumed at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday. Except Shoaib Akhtar and vice-captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, the other 14 members of the Pakistan team attended the camp.

Yawar pointed out that Shoaib Akhtar was coming to Pakistan from Australia and he was likely to join the camp in couple of days.

Inzamam-ul-Haq was facing family problems at home and he was also expected to join the camp on Friday, Yawar said. He said that the camp training would be held in two sessions. The morning session will be held at a local health club where the boys would do physical exercises and swimming. The evening session will be held at the Gaddafi Stadium from 1.30pm.

He said that the former paceman Sikandar Bakht had been appointed as the analyst. He hoped that enough data about the bowlers and the batsmen of the other teams would be gathered before the next World Cup-2003.

Yawar Saeed said that the Pakistan team will hold a six week training camp at Abbotabad in August before hosting the Australia next year.