ISLAMABAD - Bating legend Javed Miandad Wednesday advised Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the green shirts to focus on giving the best in the series against Sri Lanka this month.
Miandad said: “We must not bother of which players would travel to Pakistan and instead focus on playing at our best in the series. If the players have opted out of the tour to play other foreign leagues than SLC must take notice of the matter, as a player’s first priority should be playing for his own country.
“Pakistani players need to be consistent in their performances. The series against Sri Lanka was a good chance for Pakistan team to win and make a good start at home,” he added.
The legendary batsman said: “Our players need to build up longer innings focusing on 200 runs after a 100. A player’s gets out after a 100 because he never thinks of getting another 100,” he said adding thinking big would improve the batsmen mentality and innings. Miandad said PCB must focus on improving school cricket to get a good chunk of players from the grass-roots level. “A player when comes in the team is mature and cannot learn the way a grooming youngster can,” he said.
He said PCB must hire the services of former cricket greats at district level to hunt and train the upcoming players. “I used to teach techniques to Inzamam ul Haq and other players when was attached with the team,” he said.
To a question on India influencing politics in sports, Miandad, who was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009, said Indian politicians had been politicizing everything just for personal gains.