By IANS,
Karachi : Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Director General Javed Miandad feels that cricket in the country will benefit more from batting-friendly strips.
The former Pakistan captain told reporters here that he has instructed the country’s chief curator to prepare wickets that can enable high-scoring matches instead of green tops in domestic tournaments like the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Miandad said that sub-standard wickets were prepared for the initial rounds of the tournament which is why most of the first-class matches ended within two or three days. He said Pakistan should have wickets on which a team can score 500 or 600 runs.
“We need to produce world class batsmen,” he said. “We need seven good batsmen for the national team and you cannot groom them on sub-standard wickets,” he said.
Senior Pakistani cricketers like pacer Shoaib Akhtar and batsman Younis Khan have in the recent times urged for sporting wickets. They want PCB to order wickets that can support fast bowlers. However, Miandad made it clear that the Board will not vote in the favour of bouncy and green-top wickets. “Fast wickets will not serve the purpose.”
“If you see all over the world, wickets are becoming more batting friendly because spectators come to see runs being scored. We also need our domestic matches to be high-scoring encounters,” he said.
Miandad said that he is currently working on transforming Karachi’s National Stadium into a world-class facility. He said that the stadium will be renovated within a week and will be ready for the proposed home series against Sri Lanka.