ISLAMABAD -Head Coach Mickey Arthur has responded over controversialcomments made by Skipper Shoaib Malik in the Australia series.
Shoaib Malik had said that Pakistan are only testing the strength of thebench for the on-going series.
His words sparked a lot of controversy where likes of Ramiz Raja and RashidLatif chimed in and demanded a better attitude from the captain of thePakistan cricket team.
Mickey Arthur, in the press conference ahead of today’s 3rd ODI, clarifiedthe situation and said that Pakistan is indeed testing the strength of thebench but it doesn’t mean the team isn’t worried about the outcome.
Every time we play for Pakistan, we are playing to win. You ask the guys inthe dressing room, I am a very bad loser. We hate losing. We arerepresenting a very proud cricket nation and we never want to lose. We aretesting our bench strength, but we will never sacrifice our intensity andthe will to win.
Incredible Young Players
The head coach appreciated the young players for stepping up in the absenceof key players, which are either rested for the series or are out injured.
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We are calling this a tour of opportunity as we are trying to build anucleus of players who are ready to come in when our front line players areout-of-form or injured.
The attitude to the guys that we have around here has been incredible.
These guys will become very, very good cricketers. The other guys [who havebeen rested for this series] have been in a tough system for two years.
These guys are only making their way like Mohammad Hasnain, Abid Ali, SaadAli. Shan and Mohammad Rizwan have been in and out of our one-day side.Umar Akmal is back.
