No quality batsmen available

Former captain and chairman of junior selection committee Zaheer Abbas Friday said he was impressed with some budding bowlers but unhappy with the lack of quality batsmen.

Zaheer, once a scourge of bowlers, said he and his committee had sighted quite a few good slow and fast bowlers from the recently concluded National Junior Championship.

He was amazed that a crop of fast bowlers were coming up despite the fact that there were slow and low bouncy wickets in the country.

He said there were good spinners but advised them to give more flight. He opined that with one-day cricket being played so much, the spinners were now bowling flat and at low trajectory.

However, the aspect which impressed the bespectacled stalwart was the immense improvement by the youngsters in fielding. Without givning credit to the junior coaches, Zaheer said the youngsters had improved in the area after watching matches on televisions.

Zaheer said a detail report about the weaknesses and abilities of players was being prepared by the junior selection committee which it would be handed over to Haroon Rasheed who is the coach of the junior team.

Interestingly, Zaheer spoke of everything which comes in the jurisdiction of junior coach without highlighting his committee policies and criterion for the selection of teams.