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The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Lt Gen Tauqir Zia praised showers on the national team for winning the Sharjah Cup and reiterated that his establishment could continue to look after the cricketers.

In a press statement, the PCB chairman said: "Despite having been starved of international cricket for the best part of the last four months, the Pakistan team displayed remarkable consistency.

"They were without some of the leading performers, like Saqlain Mushtaq. But with the skipper leading by example, there for no looking back for Pakistan after some tentative starts."

The PCB chairman said he was delighted to see the boys backing and supporting each other. "I believe that with their talent and potential, this team spirit and camaraderie wouldtake this team places."

The PCB chairman defended the investment on paceman Shoaib Akhtar who came through with flying colours in the Sharjah Cup. "As long as I am in the saddle, no Pakistani asset would be allowed to wither due to lack of medical attention.

"Our record proves that whosoever got a fitness of medical problem, the board expenditiously attended to it, without giving any thought to the cost of rehabilitation. "Off hand, I can recall that other than Shoaib, the PCB took care of Moin Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Azhar Mahmood, Mohammad Sami and Mohammad Zahid," he said in a statement.

He opined that the players were the most valuable assets, adding that whatever expense was made was irrelevant. He said Sami and Zahid would soon be staking claims for spots in the squad and "it is because of PCB's timely medical support to these cricketers that the Pakistani selectors now have the choice to select a pace quintet of indisputable quality."

The PCB boss reserved special compliments for Shoaib.

"As the fastest bowler of his generation, Shoaib is a unique phenomenon. And I was really happy to see him deliver at Sharjah."

Tauqir said he was glad that PCB's efforts to raise a formidable squad for the 2003 World Cup were on track and bearing fruit. "To me what is really important is the fact that it is now clear that the PCB's concerted effort to build up a nucleus for the 2003 World Cup seem to be bearing fruit. Not only do we have a very decent core, but the talent on the wings too has gone through intensive coaching and improved its skills levels to bring it at par with the demands of international standards.

"It gives me immense satisfaction that we seem to have come out of the rebuilding phase, and are well on the path of emerging as an outfit with the potential to achieve greater things. "In that sense, I feel that this victory is a herald of many more."

The PCB chairman said Sri Lanka was one of the top one-day outfits in the world, and the manner is which Waqar Younis and his charges outclassed them in th final surely points out to the fact that pakistan cricket team has kept itself well turned, despite reduced international cricket.

© Dawn