LONDON, 22 May — The Pakistan cricket think tank yesterday put their heads together in a bid to work out the reasons for the stunning defeat at Lord’s, with captain Waqar Younis making it clear their were no excuses for the below-par performances by everyone. “I don’t want to make excuses. True we played in difficult conditions. We were short of match practice. But the team consists of proven performers and we should have put in a far better performance than we did,” he maintained.
Waqar held a two hours long meeting with manager Yawar Saeed, coach Richard Pybus and vice captain Inzamam ul-Haq at the team hotel yesterday and later said it was basically an exercise to understand where things had gone wrong and how best to ensure the boys didn’t lose their spirit and motivation for the rest of the matches on tour.
“We still have a long way to go on this tour. We can comeback in the second Test at Manchester. But when you lose in such a manner early on the tour, it is imperative to keep the spirits and motivation factor of the players up for the remaining games.”
Waqar also insisted that the defeat had nothing to do with any problems in the dressing room or that the defeat might have had adverse effects on team spirit. “Nothing of that sort. Everyone is disappointed and down. We were all keen to do well at Lord’s, but to be honest we are up against a very confident and professional side at the moment, who are on a roll. I think Caddick and Gough bowled outstandingly, while Thorpe is in excellent form.”
Asked as to how he justified the decisions to first drop a world class bowler like Saqlain Mushtaq and than the move to again ask Saleem Elahi to open the innings when he is known to be vulnerable on pitches where the ball seams around, Waqar said no mistake had been made in not playing Saqlain. “We took a joint decision after having a look at the pitch and weather conditions. The ball didn’t spin at all, it is just we didn’t bowl as well as could have. And their is no excuse for that. The England bowlers showed the pitch was pacer friendly.” He said Salim had come in opener because he had played well at Kent in the side match and demanded to be given a chance. We didn’t get enough side matches to really try out everyone in contention. So, we have to depend on the performances in the two games we played. No use blaming anyone. We just batted and bowled irresponsibly, there was lack of planning and proportion among us. The bowlers bowled on both sides of the wicket, which was criminal. I am really disappointed, but we have to take the good with the bad.” He said Shoaib Akhtar had to be played since Muhammad Sami was injured, but he had not done badly in his first big match after a long time and would get better with more match exposure.
He conceded that the team had gone into the Lord’s Test short of match practice and that was a key factor in the batting collapsing twice. It is difficult for everyone, I know that, but we can only try to do better from here.”
Waqar was confident that Pakistan could hit back at Manchester where finally their was a county match played on Sunday after three washouts. “We know the conditions well there and it is more suited to our style of play. But it is not going to be easy stopping a side which is now among the best teams, but I still have confidence in my team to know they can do it. We will have to really be disciplined in our approach to all aspects of the game.”
The Pakistan squad now moves onto Leicestershire today where they first play a one dayer tomorrow followed immediately by a four day match before the Manchester Test.
