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Pakistan junior coach Haroon Rasheed Monday admitted that the present set of players were not as disciplined and committed as the previous pool of boys he managed a decade ago.

"The talent is there but the discipline, commitment and hunger for success is missing. I have no hesitation in saying that the boys I trained and groomed a decade ago, were far better," Haroon said shortly after he returned from New Zealand where his team failed to reached the Super League of the Youth World Cup.

"I can't guarantee a player in the present lot to play for the country with distinction. And the saddest part is that it is not because of talent but for lack of dedication and commitment.

Haroon was specifically critical on the batsmen despite emphasising that they had a wide range of strokes. "But their shot selection was poor and that was the reason for their failure. They weren't as mentally tough and got carried away by the situation.

"We had undoubtedly the best bowling which had bite and variety. All our bowlers, whether they be spinners or fast bowlers, took wickets. But their efforts were undone by the batsmen." "I believe that when the team fails, the knives are out."

Haroon also defended the exclusion of Ariz Kamal and Zeeshan Mohsin in the squad. Ariz scored a century on his first-class debut days after he was overlooked while Zeeshan was not considered good enough to make the final 30 despite scoring century in each innings of the National Under-19 Championship final.

"No body knew that Ariz would score a century two weeks after he was overlooked. But I admit he was a border-line case. As regards Zeeshan, he wasn't athletic and lacked fitness. I strongly feel that the team was selected after a proper selection process."

When argued that players of Zaheer and his calibre didn't need to pick players on statistics, he replied: "We used our judgement. Besides, if a player with top performance is not picked, questions are raised why a top performer was not selected. There are always ifs and buts after the team loses."

Haroon said despite the failure, he was pleased with the performance of pacemen Umer Gul, Junaid Zia, allrounder Kamran Sajid and off-spinner Irfanuddin. "These boys are good hard boys but need to work harder to achieve at the highest level."

© Dawn