LAHORE -  Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq has said that making strong teams for all the formats is top priority.

Speaking in the programme “Game Beat”, Inzi said: “It is top priority of the selection committee and coaching staff to make the teams of all the formats more strong so that they may produce excellent results and manage to reach top of the ICC rankings.”

He said that it was the captain who was in action during the matches. “As the captain of the team is a main fighter and leader of the team, I always give due importance to his opinion and suggestion wile selecting any team. And it is also vital to bring team management, captain and selection committee on one page so that the team for every format must be selected on merit and may give satisfactory results.”

Replying to a query regarding former T20 captain Shahid Afridi, Inzamam said: “There is a very close relation between the selection committee and the players and we always want to bid a remarkable farewell to any retiring players. In the same way, we also want to say good-bye to Afridi in a trend-setting manner and looking forward to give him a memorable farewell.”

Giving credit to the all the players for West Indies ODI and T20 whitewashes, Inzamam said: “All the players played like a unit and their unity, harmony and individual and collective efforts resulted in excellent results in both the formats. I hope in the Test series, Pakistan team will produce extraordinary results.”

The chief selector said he could see challenging spirit among the boys who were eager to excel in the given matches. “With such a challenging environment, it is too tough for us to select the team, but it is very healthy sign as well, as the better the buck we will have, the better results we can get in the series ahead.”

The chief selector said there was a dire need of improving first class structure. “The better the first class structure will be, the better outcome we will get in form of quality cricketers, which will certainly help the national team and also strengthen it. Change in the team is not a short-time process, but it needs 2 to 3 years to get quality stuff to prepare the team of world class, who may beat any given opponent and excel at the top level.”