Pakistan 'A' meet England today (3 April 1999)

3 April 1999

Pakistan 'A' meet England today

Ilyas Beg

LAHORE, April 2: Led by Test paceman Waqar Younis, a strong Pakistan "A" side will play against England team on Saturday in first of the two day and night practice matches being played at the Gaddafi Stadium.

The "A" team includes a few Test stars who have staked their claim for berths in the national side. Sadly, some of the PIA and KRL players already called for the two matches could not join their fellow-trainees who trained on Friday afternoon and evening under floodlights under the guidance of coach Sarfaraz Nawaz, assistant coach Afzaal Butt and skipper Waqar Younis.

While replying to a question, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) secretary Waqar Ahmad said:

"PIA has not released wicket-keeper Javed Qadeer, batsman Sohail Jafar and off-spinner Shoaib Malik while KRL has not sent Test batsman Muhammad Wasim. Still, we will able to field good sides in both the matches".

Coach Sarfaraz Nawaz, who have been training the pacemen and batsmen in a camp at Rawalpindi, told Dawn that the eleven will be finalised a little before the start of the match. He said that the following 19 players are required to report again at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday at 11 am:

Waqar Younis (captain), Mushtaq Ahmad, Wajahatullah Wasti, Muhammad Naveed Qureshi, Akhtar Sarfaraz, Hasan Raza, Saeed Anwar Junior, Humayun Farhat, Sajid Shah, Kabir Khan, Hasan Adnan, Shahid Mansoor, Taufique Umar, Faisal Iqbal, Shabbir Ahmad, Wasif Ali, Rizwan Ahmad, Kamran Akmal, Muhammad Husain. Manager of the side is Azhar Zaidi.

The day and night match will begin at 2 pm. It will be supervised by international umpire Muhammad Siddique Khan and Aleem Dar. Abdul Hameed and Masood Ahmad will be the scorers. The first session will be held from 2 pm to 5:30 pm. After a break of 45 minutes, the second session of the match will be held under floodlights from 6:15 pm to 9:45 pm.

England cricket team's media relations officer Brian Murgatroyd told Dawn that players were given rest on Friday after two hectic days on the field on Wednesday and Thursday. All the 14 England players will be given opportunities to play in the two matches so that they could have sufficient practice for the Sharjah Cup Cricket Tournament in a temperature and climate similar to that of the Emirates. He said that the England XI will be finalised after having a good look at the Gaddafi Stadium pitch on Saturday.

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