KARACHI: Pakistan captain Babar Azam on Thursday asserted that his team is focussed on winning the ODI World Cup in India and not just beating the arch-rivals in the much-awaited clash in Ahmedabad on October 15.
Pakistan are expected to travel to India for the ICC event though their participation is subject to government clearance.
”We are not thinking only about playing and winning against India in the World Cup. We are looking at doing well in every match if we are to win the ICC title.
”We are going to play the World Cup, not just India in India,” said Babar.
He also said that the rumblings in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will not have any bearing on the national team’s performance in the ICC World Cup, or in the assignments prior to that.
When asked if the recent changes in the PCB leadership and selection committee had affected the players, Babar said their work is to focus on cricket.
”We don’t focus on what is happening in the PCB. We just focus on cricket. We have the entire schedule of our coming matches before us and we know what needs to be done to win matches as professionals,” Babar said.
Asked how much pressure was there on the players knowing they had to go to India for the World Cup, Babar said as a team they were prepared to play anywhere.
”We have to play the World Cup wherever it is held and we are excited about the challenges ahead of us,” he said.
He also said that the Pakistan team is working on its plans for the Asia Cup and World Cup keeping in mind its strengths and the conditions in the host countries.
The Pakistan skipper said that the upcoming Test series in Sri Lanka would be challenging as it is the start of the new World Test Championship cycle for them.
”We will be guided by Mickey Arthur in Sri Lanka as he had also remained their coach and knows the conditions there well,” he said.
Babar also felt that the Test series in Sri Lanka would help Pakistan in their preparations for the 50-over Asia Cup and World Cup.
”The formats are different but playing in conditions like Sri Lanka will help us prepare well,” he said.
Zaka Ashraf appointed chairman of PCB management committee
The Pakistan government has appointed a new 10-member PCB management committee, headed by Zaka Ashraf, for a period of four months.
The management committee will hold its first meeting in Lahore on Thursday.
Ashraf was favourite to become chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board last month but the PCB had to postpone that election after the formation of its board of governors — which elects the new chairman — was challenged in multiple courts around the country.
The government has removed PCB election commissioner Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana and appointed advocate supreme court Mahmood Iqbal Khakwani in his place.
The PCB election of its new chairman was postponed on June 26 after Baluchistan High Court accepted the petition of Gul Mohammad Kakar, a former member of the PCB management committee, and set a hearing for July 17.
Before former chairman Najam Sethi dropped out of the election, he formed a 10-member board of governors that also included two direct nominees from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the PCB patron.
Acting chairman Ahmed Shehzad Farooq Rana then changed several of the board of governors, prompting Kakar’s court challenge.
Representatives of bigger cities such as Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and Peshawar were replaced by men from smaller cities such as Dera Murad Jamali, Hyderabad, Larkana and Bahawalpur.
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