LAHORE: Pakistan cricketers will team up with another iconic institution of the country, the Pakistan Army, for a 10-day training camp from March 25 to April 8. This was announced by PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Tuesday at a hotel in Islamabad while addressing several players. The camp will start about a week after the end of the PSL and Naqvi hopes to help the players get their fitness “up to speed”.
“When I watched the matches in Lahore, I don’t think any of you hit a six that went into the stands,” Naqvi said. “Whenever a six like that fell, I thought it must have been hit by a foreigner. I asked the management to come up with a plan to get each player’s fitness up to speed. You will have to put in the effort to do that.” .
“We’ve got New Zealand, then Ireland, England and the T20 World Cup. I was like, when are we going to train?” but there was no time. However, we found a window where we organized a camp in Kakul (Military Academy) from March 25th to April 8th. The Pakistan Army will be involved in your training and hopefully I will help you.”
An intensive training camp in one of the few windows where the players would otherwise rest is likely to be unpopular, especially as it is preceded by six months of virtually non-stop cricket and followed by several bilateral series leading up to the T20 World Cup. .
Additionally, the camp coincides with the second half of the holy month of Ramzan, a time when most Pakistanis culturally prioritize family or religious activities over work. Complicating the effectiveness of the camp is likely to be the fact that most of the players on the squad will be fasting and there will be no food or water from sunup to sundown, which would not make for a rigorous training camp.
However, there is a precedent for Pakistan cricket involving the military in training. Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq famously organized a training camp with the army at the Kakul Academy ahead of the Test series to England.
When Misbah reached his hundred in the first Test, he celebrated by performing ten push-ups followed by a military salute. The series was drawn 2–2, with Pakistan topping the Test rankings for the first time in their history.
Naqvi also addressed one of the more pressing issues facing the management, telling the players that they need to prioritize national commitments over the lure of T20 leagues. The issue was thrown into the limelight when Haris Rauf refused to be part of Pakistan’s tour of Australia. Chief selector Wahab Riaz publicly criticized Rauf and two months later the PCB terminated his central contract.
To illustrate this, Naqvi referred to his own time as caretaker chief minister of Punjab, a role he held for more than a year, and briefly alongside the PCB chairmanship. He said it was a sacrifice he made because of his desire to serve Pakistan.
“I’m not going to say you can’t make money, or ask you to make sacrifices that we’re also not ready for. But let me give you one example. A year ago, I was asked to become the Chief Minister of Punjab, and it caused me a financial loss in my business. I had to put it aside and incur some other expenses. But I wanted to represent Pakistan, so I had to sacrifice it.
“I will support you 100% but I will only ask you to make Pakistan your first priority and the T20 leagues second. It is unfortunate when money becomes the first priority and the country second. If you do that, then we might have a Problem. We may even look on central treaties and further strengthen them if you wish, but you must be primarily available for Pakistan.’
Pakistan is currently without a national-level coaching facility and Naqvi briefly mentioned that the PCB was in touch with potential options, saying no expense would be spared.
“We will try to give the best for you,” Naqvi said. “I told the PCB that our job is not to save money or hoard it, but to spend it on cricket, from the grassroots to the national team. The money will be spent on your fitness, training and coaches, rather than keeping it locked.”
