KARACHI – The Pakistan Cricket Board has constructed the country’s biggest High Performance Center (HPC) at National Stadium Karachi to improve batting techniques for the players’ foreign tours.
A total of 23 pitches including a cement track have been constructed at the facility – which is currently under the first phase of mega renovation work. For the first time, a marble turf has also been incorporated.
Iqbal Qasim, who is heading the High Performance Center, told the media that the reason behind building such a facility was to eliminate players’ excuses. “They won’t have any excuse left once the centre became operational,” he added.
“For the first time we have experimented with the marble track. The ball will come on with more pace and bounce as compared to a regular cement pitch,” Qasim was quoted by Business Recorded as saying.
“Javed Miandad was famous for such experiments. He used to practice by placing marble pieces. We can call it a replica of his experiment,” he added.
The PCB official believes practicing on these tracks would improve footwork and performances of Pakistani batsmen on bouncy tracks in foreign condition, particularly in New Zealand and Australia.
With Pakistan Super League (PSL) just around the corner and West Indies tour to Pakistan next month, construction of such facility, which will be completed in next few weeks, will prove to be very fruitful in improving the cricketers’ performance.
