Malaysian cricketers in Karachi (13 Jan 1998)

13 January 1998

Malaysian cricketers in Karachi

By Our Sports Reporter

KARACHI, Jan 12: A 16-member Malaysian cricket team arrived here on a little under two weeks tour of Karachi during which it will play a minimum of nine limited overs matches.

The visitors have entered in three Ramazan tournaments - the Karachi Gymkhana festival, Super Cup and CCP multinationals tournament. The tourists open their campaign in the 18th Nazimabad Super Cup on Tuesday where they take on AO Cricket Club. On Wednesday, they face NDFC in the Karachi Gymkhana tournament.

Former Test batsman, Sadiq Mohammad, who is Malaysia's cricket coach, said his team had come here to learn. "We are here to prepare for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. Victories would be welcomed as they would boost the morale of the side but if we lose, it would show us where we stand.

"It would help us rectify our weaknesses and overcome vulnerable areas," Sadiq said. Sadiq said the main objective of playing 25 overs matches was to provide the batsmen a chance to know how to hit the ball. "My batsmen know how to defend but they have to learn how to hit the ball and that too hard enough. In one-day cricket, the batsmen have to take charge and unfortunately we don't know how to do it.

"We have played friendly matches against Singapore and have won against them easily but the opposition has not been tough enough to test our potential," said Sadiq.

Sadiq said the Malaysian government was very keen to promote the game in the country and this trip was approved by the top officials of the country. "A proper bill was submitted and it was passed by the legislators."

Source:: Dawn (https://dawn.com/)