Pakistani off spinner Saeed Ajmal, who has lost his place in the national team in the last couple of years, has landed a job with Sports Board Punjab as a Director Development Plans where the 39-year old’s role will be to mentor and identify young cricketers. Ajmal’s task would include supervising cricket academies apart from the revival of grounds and administrative affairs in Punjab as part of the development of youth programme.
Usman Anwar, Director General, SBP told the media “We have given responsibility to Saeed keeping an eye on future of Pakistan cricket and we are confident to get benefit from his expertise in the game. We are rich in cricket talent and we will evolve a system to have a reservoir of young talented cricketers to broaden the base of the game and to serve a pipeline to produce finish products for our junior cricket teams.”
“We are confident that Ajmal’s expertise in the game would benefit us. Hiring him is part of our cricket development programme to locate talented cricketers at early levels and to groom them under a long-term plan,” he added.
The off-spinner, who last represented, Pakistan in 2015 was clearly delighted with his return to cricket, albeit in a different role as he took to Twitter to announce the news. Ajmal’s fans were also delighted and congratulated him through the social networking site. The bowler was congratulated even by cricketers Mohammad Hafeez and Dean Jones on Twitter.
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Earlier this month, Saeed Ajmal had lashed out at International Cricket Council when asked about ICC’s bowling action Tests “Careers are at stake here and these things need to be tested thoroughly before bowlers are banned. Can the ICC say that their testing procedures are absolutely accurate? No, they cannot. Therefore, the careers of bowlers are being jeopardised by equipment that is not totally accurate”
“Modern day cricket has become a game designed for batsmen,” said Ajmal. “Spinners are penalised for their bowling actions but look at the size of cricket bats these days, they are like tree trunks. Also, look at the power-play rules and the relevant field settings. Fast bowlers have been given two bouncers an over, but what concessions have the spinners been given? Nothing apart from more suspicion and scrutiny.”
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