LAHORE, Nov 17: A number of talented cricketers knocking at the doors of International cricket will be given a chance in the five-match One-day Internationals series against the West Indies in order to strengthen the back-up resources for the World Cup 2007.

This assurance was held out to participants of the PCB-sponsored one-day seminar by chief selector Wasim Bari and fellow selector Ehteshamuddin here on Friday.

The West Indies, currently on Pakistan tour, will play the ODI series from Dec 5 after completing the three Test matches later this month.

Former wicketkeeper batsman Wasim Bari, addressing the audience during the 'Strategy for World Cup-2007' segment, welcomed the various suggestions from speakers which included former captains Mushtaq Mohammad, Asif Iqbal, Rashid Latif and spinner Abdul Qadir.

Some of the experts questioned the chief selector as to why talented players like left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman and medium-pacer Samiullah Niazi as well as a few others were being overlooked despite being part of the team during the last couple of series.

Bari assured the critics that the upcoming players will be tried during the ODI series against the West Indies since the home series was the best opportunity to experiment with back-up players “These players can always come good in case of injury to the first choice players for the World Cup which will be held in the West Indies in March next year.”

Bari said the selectors had more-or-less marked the players who would be forming the nucleus of the Pakistan team for the World Cup but there was a definite need to improve their fielding skills.

Former captain Mushtaq stressed on the need to have back-up players in place for every position. Asif Iqbal also endorsed his former captain's views and added, "We should be positive and should support the team for the World Cup."

Leg-spinning wizard Abdul Qadir also urged the selectors to groom a left-arm spinner for the World Cup as he could play a decisive role in matches in the Caribbeans.

Another former Test cricketer Mohammad Ilyas said Pakistan should include six batsmen for each match while Sadiq Mohammad favoured a line-up comprising five.Former Test opener Ramiz Raja, voicing his frank opinions at the seminar, said no further experiments should be done with the team now and suggested that PCB should announce the World Cup probables as soon as possible.

The former players reached a consensus of sorts during the seminar on adoption of an aggressive strategy for the World Cup while stressing that a definite plan for each match be chalked out in the mega event. The experts insisted that special efforts should be made to improve the physical and mental toughness of the players and the team officials including the manager, coach, selectors and the captain be made accountable for team’s performance in the Cup.

The seminar’s second session was based on "roles and responsibilities of manager, coach and captain of Pakistan team" but it soon turned into a heated debate over the hiring of foreign or local coaches for the team.

Former Test captain Intikhab Alam said though he was not against hiring of foreign coaches, they were not entirely suitable as the players did could not communicate freely with them due to language barriers. He emphasised that a foreign coach could also not properly understand the psyche of the cricketers and the local conditions.

Qadir and Rashid Latif opposed the employing of foreign coaches for the cricket squad arguing that there was no guarantee Pakistan could win any series under them. Rashid observed that Pakistan was only doing well on the sub-continent pitches but lost badly in Australia, England and other countries during coach Bob Woolmer’s stint. He said similar sort of performances were seen during the coaching of Javed Miandad about two years ago.

Former opener Mohsin Khan said he was Woolmer’s supporter when he was appointed as coach but said no big difference was seen in his tenure. He urged for hiring of coaches for different age categories including U-15, U-17, U-19. “Everyone wants to coach the senior team but no one is ready to work at the junior level.”

Former Test cricketer, Ijaz Butt, who was also the secretary of the cricket board in late 80s pointed out highlighted the issue of discipline, emphasising that the manager should be made responsible for imposing the code of conduct among the players while coach should concentrate on planning for each game.

Other former cricketers including Pervez Sajjad, Haroon Rasheed, Shafiq Papa, Aaqib Javed, Ijaz Ahmad also spoke on the occasion.

Almost all the speakers supported the idea of forming advisory council of the PCB to run the affairs with a democratic setup.

Legendary opener Majid Khan joined the workshop in the third session which addressed issues pertaininging to cricket organisation and development, first class cricket, talent hunt, national and regional academies, selection process at first class and national cricket level, etc.

Majid observed that there was a lot inconsistency in the way the domestic cricket was run in the country while Australia, England and West Indies had stuck to their systems for decades without making any big change.

Majid urged the PCB to instruct every department affiliated with it to sponsor one region of the board, besides running their own teams. He said the PCB should chip in with a similar amount which the sponsor would give to the region. The former captain also favoured the idea of appointing paid coaches and selectors for the team.

Earlier, PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf highlighted the importance of the seminar and assured that every recommendation would be considered seriously and will be incorporated in the working system of the team and the board.

Team coach Bob Woolmer and bowling coach Waqar Younis did not attend the seminar due to their resapective assignments with the team in Multan.

Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Moin Khan and Aamir Sohail did not attend the seminar/workshop.