Young talent to help form Pak U16 team: Noushad
Bureau Report

LAHORE—Chairman, National Junior selection committee, Col (retd) Noushad Ali said on Wednesday the young talent tapped recently will help in forming National U16 team to provide a strong base to the game.
He was speaking at the unveiling “ the champions of the future “ under a talent hunt of heroes by mobilink here on Wednesday at National Cricket Academy. Also present were Chief Operating Officer,PCB, Shafqat Nagmi, former Pakistan captain ,Rameez Rajat, Director Game Development,PCB, Mudassar Nazar and Khurram Mahboob, representative of Mobilink.
Noushad said it is the first time that an organised effort was made with the help of Mobilink to unearth talent through a systematic programme in which all the major cities and towns of the country were involved. “We are hoping to yield productive results from this exercise by having a talented U16 team to represent us in International tournament including in next month U15 World Cup as some of the players are below 15 years of age “,he said. Chief selector said under the programme in all 37 players have been selected who will be undergoing 6 week extensive training at NCA after which a playing eleven will be selected based on the performance and progress of the players under the supervision of NCA coaches.
Rameez said the talent hunt programme aims at securing the future of the game in Pakistan and it is novel concept to preserve the talent to groom it with the help of coaches under a roof where all facilities of the game are available. Terming NCA a national asset working for the cause and promotion of cricket by producing “ finish products”.
“I am confident that these players have all the potential to become future test cricketers and it is rare opportunity they are availing to be in the NCA for one and half month and they must avail every moment of this chance to learn finer points of the game”,he asserted. Khurram Mahboob of Mobilink said “ Hunt for heros is a successful programme lunched by his organisation to share in a national duty”.
He said similar efforts will be continued every year to give ample chance to other budding players to come forward and to be part of this programme. Director Game Development,Mudassar Nazar said Pakistan lacked in the department of spin bowling and it is hoped that a few young players will emerge as spinners to fill the void. “It is a very beneficial activity and team of experts (coaches) will help all of them to learn competitive cricket by putting them in tournament and training to form a playing side “,he said.Head of Youth Development Programme, former test cricketer,Haroon Rasheed also spoke on the occasion.
Following will attend NCA under the coaching of Aqib Javed, Ejaz Ahmed, Mansoor Rana, Mudassar Nazar, Haroon Rashid, Rashid Latif, Intekhab Alam (Opening Batsmen) Hassan Azam (Karachi), M. Shezad Malik (Multan), Babar Azam (Lahore), Umer Siddique (Lahore),Mohammed Naeem (Islamabad), Abdullah Tahir (Islamabad).
(Middle Order Batsmen) S. Abdullah Shah (Karachi), Ahsan Ali (Karachi), Asim Ali (Jalalpur Jattian), Mohammed Nawaz (Rawalpindi), Mohammed Asif (Rawalpindi), M Qaddafi (Hyderabad), Wajid Ali (Islamabad), ali Nail (Lahore), M. Farhan Shabbir (Jhang/Gojra), Mehroze Haneef (Lahore).
(Wicket keepers) Faizan Khan (Karachi), Maqbool Ahmed (Sahiwal), Shahzad Hussain (Peshawar), Ali Nadeem (Islamabad), M Awais (Hyderabad).