Mansoor looks to make it three-in-a-row

Once again the Pakistan teenagers proved as to why they are the top dogs in that age group in the Cricketing World. Visibly they were a cut above the rest during the Tri-nation series which was held in Colombo that involved hosts Sri Lanka and England.This series was a prelude to the under 19 Worls Cup tournament which is scheduled to get underway from 17 February in Malaysia.

They had the real warm up coming out victorious by emerging the champion defeating Sri Lanka in a one sided final. Apart from the only loss which was against England which they underwent in the second match of the round robin games. Pakistan tightened their belts and made a very professional approach from there onwards.

The Sunday Times had an opportunity of speaking to the Pakistan coach Mansoor Rana to get his views and the remedy they took after that close defeat to England and the training they did in preparation for the Sri Lankan tour and in whole the world cup in Malaysia.

Rana is no stranger to the cricket fraternity as he comes with a background of a cricketing family. Mansoor represented Pakistan in the early 90’s playing under the legendary Imran Khan while his brother Maqsood too has played under Imran in the same period.

His father Shakoor Rana uncles Shafqat and Azmat were active members in Paksitan cricket. Father Shakoor though did not represent the national team, but, has played first class cricket and was a reputed international umpire during a periodwhich spanned over two decades from 1975 to 1996. Uncles Shafqat and Azmat played under Hanif Mohamed and Javed Mianded.

So with this background it’s not a surprise that Mansoor who after hanging his boots took to coaching and has been an instant success where Pakistan junior cricket is concerned. Being in charge of the Pakistan Under 19 for the last three years he knows the best and worst of the boys who are under him.

Pakistan has lifted the coveted ICC Youth World Cup in 2004 when it was held in Bangladesh and 2006 in Sri Lanka. Being the coach of the 2006 edition he has now groomed the present team who are aiming to make it three in a row to a match winning combination.

“We have been working hard on the boys and they have been shown what is expected from them in Malaysia. We played a five match one day series against Australia where we won all the games. Then we had a small setback losing to Bangladesh three games to two. But since then we have realised and remedied the mistakes.

“The loss to England in the second match of the recently concluded tri nation tournament was an eye opener for us. It gave us an opportunity to see where we went wrong.

“We made some changes in the batting line up by promoting number five batsman Umar Akmal to open and that worked right up till the tournament concluded”.

He thanked the local cricket authorities for having giving them an ideal opportunity, the climate and ground conditions were similar to Malaysia. Even the other team England would agree to that sentiment.

He stated that tremendous programmes were conducted for the boys in the run up to the world cup. Past cricketers in the calibre of Ijaz Ahmed who is the fielding coach of the team are putting in all their efforts and passing their experiences to the youngsters.

The Pakistan Cricket Board too has realised that junior cricket is an essential if they are looking to advance forward. They are now emphasising a lot on school cricket in Pakistan which was not taken seriously in the past.

But the present bunch of youngsters gets their exposure by playing in inter-district and most of them represent top clubs in Pakistan’s main domestic tournament the Quaid-E.Azam trophy.

The boys had got the much needed encouragement and at the beginning 28 players from around Pakistan were selected which was pruned down to 21 and then the final 15. Of the final 15 that were picked he said “I can guarantee that at least half of them would play for the national team in the near future”.

Skipper Imad Wasim and Ali Asad are the only two players left from the 2006 team while some of them namely Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Ahmed Shehzad, Shan Masood, Mohamed Aamer and Mohamed Rameez are players with tremendous talent.

Mansoor spoke highly of former test cricketer Mudassar Nazar who is playing a big role in the development of Pakistan junior cricket. Holding the posts of Directors in Game Development and National Development Academy he is doing a wonderful job in trying to expose junior cricket.In conclusion the coach was optimistic saying we are not going to leave any stone unturned as our aim is to be the first ever side to win the ICC World Youth Cup three times”.