DHARAMSALA, India, 3 March 2005 — Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq is confident his young team will silence critics during their first Test series in India for six years starting next week.
Pakistan face a huge challenge as they look to avenge last year’s home series defeat to India. They recently suffered a 3-0 test series rout in Australia and are without their main strike bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who is injured.
Former captain Mushtaq Mohammad has described the current Pakistan team as the weakest to go on tour.
Inzamam, however, said: “There is a lack of experience but you can’t say they are weak going by the way they have been performing.
“Fast bowlers do get injured,” he told reporters. “We’ve basically had the same team in the last two years.”
Inzamam, who turns 35 on Thursday, batsmen Yousuf Youhana and Shahid Afridi are the only players in the squad to have played Tests in India, when Pakistan drew a two-match series 1-1 and then won an Asian Test Championship game in 1999.
He pointed to Pakistan’s domination against India in recent One-Day Internationals. They have won the last four, including the game in Calcutta in November to mark the Indian Cricket Board’s platinum jubilee.
Coach Bob Woolmer said although the pace attack was raw, with new ball bowler Mohammad Sami having claimed just 48 scalps in 18 tests, they would be backed well by the spin bowlers, especially leg-break bowler Danish Kaneria.
“In Danish, we have arguably, very soon to be, one of the best spin bowlers in world cricket,” he said.
The Karachi bowler has been steadily growing in stature and is the most successful bowler in the side with 102 wickets in 23 Tests averaging 29.47.
“He has a terrific googly as well,” said Woolmer, who hoped tall off spinner Arshad Khan would also make an impact on spin-friendly Indian pitches on his Pakistan comeback after more than four years.
Pakistan, who play three tests and six one-dayers, begin their tour with a three-day match against the Board President’s XI starting today at this hilly venue.
Karachi Cricket Fans
Snub India Visa Offer
Cricket fans in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, have given a lukewarm response to special cricket visas for the national team’s first series in India for six years, an official said yesterday.
Only 200 applicants turned up in the past two days, a disappointed travel agent said — unlike the eastern city of Lahore where the Indian High Commission (embassy) issued 16,000 visas.
Fans in volatile Karachi snubbed the visa offer because no match is scheduled for nearby Bombay and because of a row over India’s decision 10 years ago to close its consulate in the southern port of 14 million people.
“We wanted to see a match in Bombay because there are more flights to the city and we have a lot of relatives there,” said fan Murad Ahmed.
“In two days we have given around 200 visa forms which is less than we expected,” said Shahzad Zuberi of American Express, which is running a special visa counter for cricket fans.
“We have more queries for tickets of one-day games especially for the last match in New Delhi,” Zuberi said.
In contrast, long queues have been seen outside a special visa office set up in Lahore, the closest major Pakistani city to the border with major sporting and political rival India.
“We have issued around 16,000 visas after applicants returned in their filled-in forms along with a fee,” said an Indian official at the Lahore office yesterday.
“For the last several years we have had to go to Islamabad to get visas and now these special counters are offering visas to only those cities where matches are scheduled,” complained another fan, Ashfaq Yousuf.
“At least they should give visas to one more city where there is no match so that we can meet our relatives.”
Harbhajan Action Given
Official Clearance
In London, India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has had his action effectively ‘cleared’ by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body announced yesterday.
Back in December a group of officials, including former England batsman Chris Broad, raised concerns over Harbhajan’s doosra’, a delivery which turns away from a right-handed batsman — the opposite of an orthodox off-spin ball.
But Harbhajan was reported under now defunct ‘chucking’ regulations which were more strict than those which came into force on March 1 allowing bowlers up to 15 degrees of straightening of their arm in delivery.
In a statement, cricket chiefs said: “The ICC today confirmed that it has received a report on the bowling action of India bowler Harbhajan Singh from the Board of Control for Cricket in India which indicates that his bowling action for both his off-spinner and ‘doosra’ falls within the tolerance threshold prescribed in its new regulations.
“The report will now be forwarded to the members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Referees.”
