Pakistan: Training camp for team cancelled

Probables to play in Quaid Trophy: Karachi, Dec 27: The PCB has shelved plans to hold a training camp for the national team which was scheduled to start at Lahore from Jan 2.

The probables will now be directed to appear in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy which resumes from the same day.

The form and fitness of the New Zealand-bound players will be judged by their performance in the Quaid Trophy which will soon be followed up by the Patron's Trophy that is competed by the departmental teams.

"The selectors will be asked to submit a provisional squad of New Zealand-bound team. The performances of those players in the trophy games will be given due credence before they are considered for the tour," a top official of the PCB said.

The strategy to ask the players to play at domestic circuit has been adopted after the cricket managers decided that the boys required match practice and fitness rather than attending nets for three to four hours.

"In the matches, the players will adjust to occupying the crease and convert good scores into big ones. Besides, the players would also get the opportunity of spending the time in the field which would test their fitness," officials said.

The other objective behind asking the players to return to domestic circuit is to give more importance to the first-class competition. The PCB officials admitted that the players had been skipping the tournaments due to hectic international commitments as well as on their own will.

"If we have to have a competitive domestic cricket, all the players have to appear in that. The PCB will adopt the same policy as followed in the world - perform in the domestic tournament and get selected," the chairman of the PCB Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said.

"The selectors will be asked to physically watch the boys in action rather than concentrating on statistics. It is a rigorous drill which now has to be implemented if we are serious about improving the standard of our cricket," he added.