Asif and Butt should be treated in the same way as Amir has been: Inzamam

LAHORE: Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq says Muhammad Asif and Salman Butt should get the same opportunity as has been given to Mohammad Amir.

He said Asif and Butt should get the same opportunity if they are playing well in first class cricket. “We haven’t closed the doors on anyone, including Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq. Performance is the only criteria,” Pakpassion quoted him as saying.

Speaking about injuries to the players, he said, “We have taken injury of Mohammad Hafeez into account when selecting the 21 players. Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar don’t have serious injuries. They will be part of the skill camp. The selectors job is not just looking at first-class performances but also looking at the way someone plays,” he said.

He said every team has difficult players to deal with and it is the coach and the captain’s role to handle such guys. “Imran Khan used to handle such players really well. I will sit with Mickey Arthur and discuss a minimum level of fitness required for players.  Each individual should spend two hours a day working on his fitness,” he said.

Inzamam said talent was not enough to compete with the world anymore.  “We need to improve our whole system. Mickey just has to understand the psyche of our players quickly,” he said.

He said he had met Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad and explained the reasons. “They will play again, they are both good players and as long as they don’t repeat the things we discussed, the doors are open,” he said.

Inzamam said he aims to announce the squad for the ODIs against England around the time of the second or the third Test. “England play really well in their home conditions as we have seen in the Ashes and now against Sri Lanka, but we should not be afraid,” he said.