ISLAMABAD - Renowned Indian tennis coach Birbal Wadhera in an exclusive interview with The Nation here at PTF Courts on Thursday said: "It was my moral and national duty to come to Pakistan to fulfil my commitment made by me with the PTF and also with the people of Pakistan as more than 90 per cent people have sent me emails mostly from my own country not to travel to Pakistan after the Osama episode but I refused to listen to them." "I have told my wife and family members about my desire to visit Pakistan and all of them stood behind me, supported my decision and also appreciated me." Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) President Kaleem Imam has taken the imitative to invite Birbal to Pakistan so the Pakistan players, particularly the youngsters can take benefit from Birbal's experience. Kaleem has welcomed Birbal and thanked him for accepting Pakistan coaching offer and assured him of his all out support in conducting training sessions. Kaleem said: "We want to polish our raw talent with the help of international coaches and we will invite Irish and Spanish coaches very soon." Kaleem has thanked Ten Sports for sponsoring Birbal Wadhera's visit and also promised to sponsor the other international coaches visit to Pakistan in near future. Birbal has arrived in Pakistan for a 35-day period and will impart training to a selective group of players having 12 to 18 years of age. Pakistan top ranked players including Jalil Khan, Yasir Khan, Faizan, Mehak, Iman Qureshi and Sarah Mehboob will attend the training camp which will start from today (Friday) and will last for 25 days at PTF Tennis Courts. The training session will start from 6am to 8am in the morning and from 4pm to 7pm in the evening. Birbal while commenting on his personal experience said: "I was not a very big name in India before the announcement of Pakistan's visit. As soon as I announced to visit Pakistan, suddenly I became the most important person in India." Birbal is expected to give training in Islamabad and Lahore. "If we get security clearance in Karachi then I certainly visit Karachi to impart training to the kids there," Birbal said. PTF has hired Asim Shafique and Inamul Haq to assist Birbal for first 20 days and then Shah Mehmood and Jahanzeb Khan will join Birbal for the reminder of his training period. "I am not here to undermine any ones position I am just here to help Pakistan players to improve, learn and sharpen their skills, Birbal said. I welcome all the past greats to come and work with me jointly, so we can help raise the standard of the game in the country," he added. When asked about how many kids he will pick after the completion of selection process, he replied 10 to 12 kids. I will remain in touch with them even after my departure to India. I will also be available to help other players who wanted my guidance to improve their game." PTF has announced a committee comprising Irshad Bhatti, Arif Qureshi, Naeem Khan, Mir Waiz and Ashan Asghar to help Birbal in the selection process. Birbal said that he was open to healthy criticism and after the training period was over I will put my self before everyone and let them decide if I was able to teach these kids something or otherwise. I these kids manage to learn even something from me and I will feel satisfied', he said. Replying to a query about the security situation in Pakistan, he replied with a smile: "My presence here is enough to show the world that Pakistan is completely safe for all kinds of sports and our External Minister S M Krishna has supported my decision of visiting Pakistan and said this tour will help bring people of both the countries together and further ease the tensions between both the countries." He said that he has visited Pakistan back in 2004 on the request of then PTF President Dilawar Abbas and had conducted a Summer Camp for the kids and that experience was also a very good one. He said that he is already looking forward to visit Pakistan again as he feels like Pakistan is his second home.