Miandad keen on role at NCA

Asserting that the Pakistan Cricket Board can play an important role in building a strong pool of reserve players, coach Javed Miandad said he is willing to work with youngsters at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.

"I am under contract to the Board. If they want me to work at the NCA during the time the Pakistan team has no international commitments I would be happy to spend some time there with the young players," Miandad was quoted as saying by Islamabad daily The News on Wednesday.

"Our future depends on these youngsters which is why it is so important to ensure they get the best coaching and training at these academies," he said.

The PCB regional academies will start functioning from June 2 in cities like Karachi, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Muridke.

The NCA is based in Lahore.

The Board has announced different set of coaches for the regional academies but the former national skipper feels the lack of uniformity in coaching may hamper the development of players.

"The setting up of these academies, especially the NCA in Lahore, is one of the most positive steps taken by the Board. But to make maximum use of them it is necessary that the Board has a coaching syllabus for all the academies.

"If the selected coaches have different coaching methods, then there is a problem. Because there will be no uniformity in what the youngsters will learn at these academies. The Board needs to ensure that the coaches follow the same syllabus and training methods at all these academies," Miandad said.

The former batsman also said he is looking forward to meet with PCB officials, captain Inzamam ul-Haq and manager Haroon Rasheed in order to chalk out plans for the coming international assignments.

"The Asia Cup in Sri Lanka is going to be a very tough assignment for us as we will be up against India and Sri Lanka. Even Bangladesh have shown improvement in recent matches. So we need to be very well prepared to do well against them," he added.