By Babar Malik
ISLAMABAD
(TheSportsNext) July 19, 2012: Shoaib Akhtar, the fastest-ever bowler in
cricket, said Thursday that Pakistan needed a skipper like Imran Khan to put
the team on road to success and victories.
The Rawalapindi Express believed that the captain should
have the ability to raise his game when the team is under pressure and Imran
Khan was one captain who had all the qualities of a brave and inspiring skipper.
He was talking to newsmen here at Marghzar cricket ground at
the Mobilink Jazz Summer Cricket Camp for children organized by National Press
Club.
Pakistan’s former fast bowler, who remained in the limelight
for controversies during his international career, once again put an end to
speculations regarding his international comeback.
Shoaib Akhtar said, “I’m not an actor and don’t act in
dramas. I don’t roll back my decisions and I have no plans to shed
international retirement”.
He further stated that instead of coming back in the
international cricket his top priority was to help Pakistan nurture a battery
of fast bowlers. He said that his aim was to prepare a bunch of 50-60 fast
bowlers for Pakistan.
It is important to mention here that the 36-year-old world’s
fastest pacer and former captain Moin Khan are embarking upon a seven-city tour
of Pakistan in collaboration with Sprite to hunt fast bowling talent in the
country.
When asked about the upcoming Indo-Pak cricket series in
December, Shoaib Akhtar said that the captain who has strong nerves will win
the Indo-Pak battle and it would be a great test of character of both the
oppositions.
Shoaib Akhtar also showed soft corner in his heart for the
tainted left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Amir and said that the left-armer was
still quite young and deserved second chance.
"If a player repeats the same mistake again then he
should be handed life ban from the game of cricket but as for Mohammad Amir he
committed a mistake and was banned by the ICC for five years. So I believe as
soon he completes his sentence, he should return to international arena,"
he said.
When asked about Pakistan's chances in the 2012 ICC World
Twenty20, Shoaib Akhtar said that the national side has a number of talented
and able cricketers and if they give their hundred percent, the outcome would
be soothing.
Shoaib Akhtar informed media persons that he has launched
his official website. "My fans are my encouragement and it is because of
them I launched my official website," he said adding that the best medium
to interact and reconnect with one's fan is through social and digital media. "I
will keep my fans update through my website," he said.
Shoaib further said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should take
help from the IPL and BPL organizers to organize the PPL in a benefiting way.
Talking about the revival of Pakistan-India cricket series in December this
year in India, Shoaib said nobody should think of the profit sharing in the
said series instead should think of making this series memorable and a peace
series for both the countries.
Criticizing the PCB’s cricket academy system, Shoaib Akhtar
said that the cricket board was not running these academies in a proper way and
mostly the PCB officials use these academies for recreational purposes.
“PCB can earn good bit of money
by commercial use of the national cricket academies”, he added.
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