KARACHI, 21 October 2005 — Pakistan’s cricket coach Bob Woolmer wants to have good Test pitches for the home series against England.
Woolmer, who played 19 Tests for England, said he did not believe slow and turning tracks could be prepared for the Test series.
“I don’t think conditions in Pakistan favor preparation of such pitches now. We are looking to have good Test pitches that last for five days and offer encouragement to batsmen and bowlers,” he said on Wednesday.
England arrive on Oct. 26 to play three Tests and five One-Day Internationals and there has been lot of speculation on the type of pitches that would be prepared.
The selectors have given some indication by selecting four leg spinners for a training camp including Mushtaq Ahmed, who has not played for Pakistan since 2003.
Woolmer said his players were under no illusions that the series against England would be tough. “They are playing well at the moment, and we have not got it right in Test matches. So we will have to combine well together to produce good performances,” he said.
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif also advised his former teammates not to rely too much on the spinners.
“It is a misconception that we can beat England with our spinners. We should not be looking to prepare slow turning tracks because our spinners don’t flight the ball regularly and tend to push the ball through,” Latif said.
He also outlined that rough areas on pitches, which spinners tended to exploit were usually soft in Pakistan compared with England where they were hard.
“And the problem is our bowlers don’t have the practice to bowl regularly into the rough area like Ashley Giles does,” he said.
Left arm spinner Giles captured 10 wickets in the recent Ashes series win over Australia. On his last tour to Pakistan in 2000 he set up England’s win in the final test in Karachi with seven wickets.
Jayasuriya Injured
Ahead of India Tour
In Colombo, Sri Lanka has suffered a setback ahead of next week’s limited-overs tour of India with Sanath Jayasuriya aggravating a shoulder injury in a freak accident, captain Marvan Atapattu said yesterday.
Former skipper Jayasuriya was hurt when he collided with a teammate while playing water polo earlier this week and may not be able to bowl during the seven-match one-day series starting in Nagpur on Tuesday.
“We had organized some water sports at the beach resort of Bentota and unfortunately this accident happened,” Atapattu told reporters.
“Fortunately he is available for the tour but may not be able to bowl.”
Jayasuriya, 36, is one of only four batsmen in the world to have scored more than 10,000 runs in one-dayers. He has 10,122 runs in 339 matches with 18 centuries and has also taken 267 wickets with his left-arm spin bowling.
Jayasuriya, a member of Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning squad in 1996, was one of the key players who helped his team defeat India three times during a one-day tournament at home in August.
In the one-day rankings, Sri Lanka is currently second behind Australia, while India lies seventh. But Atapattu will not take victory for granted. “We are expecting a tough challenge from India and are geared up for the tour,” said Atapattu. “We have done well at home but playing in India will be different.”
