LAHORE, 8 November 2006 — West Indies captain Brian Lara thinks his team had better chances against Pakistan in the forthcoming 3-Test and 5-match one day series, because of the absence of pace battery Shaoib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.
Both the seamers were banned, Shoaib for two years and Asif for one by a Pakistan Cricket Board anti-doping tribunal last week for testing positive.
The three-Test and five One-Day Internationals series between the visiting Caribbean and Pakistan begins here from Saturday.
Addressing a news conference yesterday morning, Lara was very optimistic of the series. “I think there is no reason to hide the fact (the absence of Akhtar and Asif) would definitely give us the advantage,” Lara told newsmen only the next day after the 15-man squad arrived here from New Delhi on Monday evening.
The PCB had sent urine samples of 18 players for testing in Malaysia in September. Two samples — of Shoaib and Asif — tested positive for steroid nandrolone.
“I am not worried about the advantage because what happened to Akhtar and Asif is a sorry situation. I came to know Akhtar in the World Series last year and although I don’t know much about Asif but he has shown potential.”
Lara, however, elaborated that his team will play good cricket irrespective of who was playing for the opposition.
“It is an unfortunate situation. No team would like to lose their key players but we will have to play good cricket and know we need to improve at Test level,” said Lara, whose team has won only one of their past 14 Tests.
Their only Test win was against Pakistan in West Indies last year.
Lara, whose team has been doing better in limited overs games than the five-day Tests, hoped that his team would rise to the challenge of switching to the longer format.
“Pakistan has other good bowlers like leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who has been successful against us in recent times so we will have to be at our best to beat them,” said Lara, who started his Test career in Pakistan 15 years ago. The West Indies team are touring Pakistan after a gap of nine years. They refused to tour the country over security fears in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy and Pakistan had to play two Tests at Sharjah.
The master batsman said his team were now comfortable playing in Pakistan.
West Indies’ Australian coach, Bennett King, thinks his team had the potential to perform well on Pakistan wickets in the Test series.
“We want to do well in (the) Test arena as it’s a test of skills and we are consistently working to be very competitive. This is a very talented side but consistency is the key,” said King.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has constituted a three-member appeal committee to review the cases of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.
The committee is headed by a former High Court chief justice, Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim and includes former chief selector and Test off-spinner Haseeb Ahsan and a sports medicine expert, Dr Danish Zaheer.
Asif filed his appeal to the PCB on Monday but Shoaib is yet to appeal against his ban.
