Legendary pace bowler Wasim Akram will fine-tunePakistan's fast bowlers for the Champions Trophy at a 10-day training camp inKarachi this month.
Three untested fast bowlers — to be picked around thecountry by a cellular company and the Pakistan Cricket Board — will join thelikes of Umar Gul, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan during the April 20-29 camp.
Akram said it's high time for Pakistan to find lethal fastbowlers to have a reserve pace armory as he feels it's easy to teach them howto control the pace and the art of swing.
Akram took 414 wickets in 104 test matches before quittingthe longer format of the game in 2002. He also took 502 wickets in 356 one-dayinternationals and retired from international cricket in 2003.
The PCB had been trying schedule Akram in for a camp sincethe World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka last year, but the former Pakistan captain hadbeen busy with assignments as a television commentator — mainly in India.
"The idea is that within 10 days give the fast bowlerthe insight of the game," Akram told reporters in Lahore.
Akram used to form a lethal pair of Ws with Waqar Younis inthe late 1990s, but since their retirement only Shoaib Akhtar was able tobriefly fill their shoes. Pakistan suffered a big loss when young left-armpaceman Mohammad Amir and pin-point accurate Mohammad Asif were both suspendedfor longer periods from international matches for their involvement inmatch-fixing in 2010.
Akram hopes that the three untested young fast bowlers couldprove an asset for Pakistan after getting training with Pakistan's frontline atKarachi.
"We should prepare a crop of fast bowlers so that ifsomeone gets injured, we know there is a backup," Akram said. "Ofcourse these fast bowlers will then be picked in their respective regionalteams and their progress will be monitored on regular basis."
Akram was not impressed by Pakistan's fast bowlers in thetest series in South Africa which the Proteas won 3-0, saying they didn't"bowl in the right corridors."
"I have to teach them what is, like we the commentatorssay, the good corridor," he said. "What is the right line and length,and how to bowl yorkers around the wicket."
However, Akram is impressed with 7-foot-1 Mohammad Irfan,who was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers on the tour of South Africa.
"I told him in India that if you are physically fit youcan disturb a batsman in all the three formats of the game," Akram said."If he is trained properly then he will be there for three, fouryears."
After a 10-day camp at Karachi, there will be aspecial camp for the Champions Trophy-bound squad in the northern city ofAbbottabad where Akram said he would also monitor the progress of the fastbowlers.