LAHORE - Former Pakistan captain and ace batsman Younus Khan hopes to revive his One-day International (ODI) career ahead of the 2015 World Cup and aims to retire on his own terms rather than be dropped for good by the selectors.
"Whatever format I played, I always tried to give my best," Younus told the reporters on Tuesday during the ongoing training camp at the Gaddafi Stadium. "But I don't have a long-term goal that I want to play the 2015 or 2019 World Cup, my desire is to play as much cricket and keep up my role-model performance.”
"A player like me, who has played 14-15 years of top cricket and played all forms of cricket, his career shouldn't be ended like being classified as only a Test player," Younus, who leads Pakistan to World T20 triumph in 2010 at Lords, said.
"My desire is to walk away on my own conditions, playing in every form of game I am available to play, rather than being dropped. I obviously want commit myself to playing ODIs and whenever I get a chance I surely would like to grab the opportunity to play the World Cup," he added.
Younus is among the fittest Pakistan players, according to M Akram, who is running the camp here. Younus was optimistic about his ODI future and hoped to use the rigorous training camp to get the selectors' attention. He felt he had another two years at top level.
"I might play for the next 10 years, but it's all about time and hunger for the game," Younis said. "I am almost in the fourteenth year of my career and it's very difficult to maintain your top performance playing at top level. After all, we are human and we can't maintain the much needed consistency, and sometime you lose interest.
"Such camps actually are very important to know yourself inside out-understand where you stand, what the fitness level is and how much we need to improve. It is good to get a window in international cricket. We unfortunately have lost the home advantage and mostly are on tours, hence no time for such extensive camps. So I took the opportunity to get myself tuned," Younus concluded.