Misbah appointed camp commandant of conditioning camp for Pakistan cricketers

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday appointed former captain Misbah-Ul-Haq as camp commandant at a forthcoming 17-day conditioning camp for Pakistan cricketers.

The news coming from PCB gives rise to speculations of him replacing Mickey Arthur as the head coach of Pakistan cricket team.

Misbah with the help of the National Cricket Academy coaching staff, will preside over a physically strenuous camp aimed at conditioning the country’s A-list cricketers ahead of their demanding cricket season.

PCB Director International Cricket, Zakir Khan remarked that Pakistan’s most successful captain Misbah-ul-Haq's experience will help cricketers prepare for the Test cricket.

Five cricketers who are to playing county cricket in Wales, England have been ensured participation in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy.

Fourteen out of nineteen cricketers with central contract have been called at the National Camp in Lahore prior Sri Lanka Test series.

As per reports, PCB announced the names of the players which are to be included in the camp earlier today but refrained from elaborating on the selection criteria.

The cricket governing body has selected 20 cricketers -including 14 cricketers with the central contract- to be a part of the pre-season camp.

All the players will be reporting at the National Cricket Academy on August 19.

Non-contracted players Asif Ali, Bilal Asif, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mir Hamza, Rahat Ali and Zafara Gohar will also report at the camp.

Before the camp, the participants will have to go through a two-day fitness test, after which the players will participate in conditioning camp from August 22 to September 7.

The Misbah-led camp will have  Azhar Ali, joining it after completing the contract with England County Somerset.

On the other hand, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim, Muhammad Abbas and Muhammad Amir have been granted leave from the camp due to their commitments in County season, while Babar Azam and Muhammad Abbas have been ordered to report till September 12.

Contracted players include Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Harris Sohail, Hassan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shahdab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shaan Masood, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, and Yasir Shah.

As per the plan, special attention is to be paid on the players, gearing them for Test cricket as revealed by Zakir Khan.

The camp has been set up to prepare the players for a competitive and challenging domestic and international cricket season, which is expected to begin with the prestigious Quaid-e-Azam Trophy from September 12.

Apart from 31 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy first-class matches and a number of domestic white ball matches in relation to the National T20 Cup and Pakistan Cup One-Day Tournament, the Pakistan cricket team is scheduled to play six World Test Championship Tests, three ODIs and nine T20Is in the forthcoming season.