PCB Chief Ijaz Butt lauds coach Waqar Younis
Pakistan Criket Board chief, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 is all praise for Pakistan’s coach Waqar Younis.
Butt has lauded Waqar’s efforts to rebuild the national team despite losing some of its star players to controversies and scandals.
“He has a plan to move forward and he has handled the team well despite the situation arising out of the spot-fixing controversies surrounding our players and other issues,” Butt said in Lahore.
Ijaz believes that the biggest advantage of having Waqar as a coach is that he understands the cricket culture of Pakistan team and faces no hurdles in communicating with the players.
Butt is confident that the Greens, led by Waqar, will put up a good show in the upcoming ICC World Cup, 2011.
The team has just returned from a successful http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 cricket that has been marred with scandals over the past months.
Three of its key players have been handed lengthy bans after being found guilty on corruption charges. Former captain, Salman Butt has been banned for 10 years with five year suspended while Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer have been banned for for seven and five years respectively.
The coach believes the World Cup will provide a great opportunity for the team to make a fresh start.
“I am happy this spot-fixing chapter is finally over and we can now move on to just cricket as the World Cup represents a big challenge for us,” he said.
Apart from the spot-fixing controversy, the team has also been embroiled in a captaincy headache. The PCB had named their 15-man squad for the tournament without naming a captain, fuelling speculation that test captain Misbah-ul-Haq could be appointed ahead of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482.
Former players and officials had slammed the delay in naming the captain, saying it was causing rifts among the players. Waqar Younis was forced to offer an apology after he criticised Butt on this front.
The PCB finally named Afridi as captain on February 4; http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 was appointed vice-captain.
Pakistan’s 15-man squad for the mega event includes Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir, and Ahmed Shehzad.
Pakistan will face http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kenya-c752.
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