Former captain and pace bowler Wasim Akram said Pakistan is not playing enough Test cricket and the national team won't be able to compete with other countries that are playing much more. Wasim said that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) needs to address this issue and make it one of their priorities as Pakistan is simply not playing enough Test cricket. "The Pakistan cricket team simply cannot compete in Test cricket with nations who are playing much more than they are. The more Test cricket the Pakistanis play, the better they will become," Wasim said in an interview to Pakpassion.net.
He further said that PCB needs to organise more Under-19 tours."The U19 teams and "A" teams of other leading Test nations are in action on a regular basis around the world, but unfortunately there seems to be very little movement on this from the PCB," he said.
The former pace further said Pakistan coaches need to work with the U19 boys and those on the fringes of selection. "There seems to be a mentality at the moment in Pakistan where the best coaches only want to be the head coach of the senior team and don't wish to work with the U19s and other junior teams. This mentality needs changing so that the boys coming through the ranks from the U19 team and the "A" team are fully prepared by the coaches for the challenges of international cricket," he said.
Wasim said former great Javed Miandad should have been the head coach of the Pakistan u19 team which is currently in England.
Talking about the 2015 World Cup, Wasim said the way I see, the Indians have moved ahead of Pakistan as far as cricket is concerned. "They are organising more tours around the world for all of their teams at all levels. They are playing a lot more cricket than Pakistan and that has an impact on the quality of player you produce," he said adding that the Indians also have the Indian Premier League which has been a major boost for their cricket and their players.
Wasim Akram said from the Pakistani perspective the planning has to start right now. "The selectors need to think about who is going to be playing at the 2015 World Cup. If you keep picking players, then dropping them, then bringing them back that is not going to work. Pakistan needs to have a settled squad going into the World Cup rather than going into the tournament with rookies and untried players," he added.