Pakistan coach denies need for fielding specialist

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam has rejected the need for a specialist fielding coach despite yet another costly catching blunder at Bellerive Oval on Thursday.

Teenage paceman Mohammad Aamer collapsed to the turf early in the opening session of the third Test against Australia, after dropping Ricky Ponting for what would have been a fourth ball duck for the Australian skipper.

Ponting finished day one unbeaten on 137, after coming into the match desperate to stamp his authority and prove himself against the short ball.

The tourists immediately set the trap with two fielders on the rope on the leg-side boundary, but the Tasmanian could not resist when the luckless Mohammad Asif fired in the first bumper.

Ponting helped it on its way directly to Aamer at long-leg to provide the easiest of regulation catches, but the teen juggled and then spilt the sitter that could have had the home 2-28 before lunch.

It was the 14th dropped Pakistan catch of the three-Test Australian tour, the same number grassed in the previous three-Test New Zealand tour.

“That was a bad drop wasn’t it. Things would have been different. It was an easy catch,” Intikhab said.

“But again it was a very vital catch for us.”

Intikhab said that when the side arrived in Australia he made a statement that Pakistan had a problem with fielding.

“I think it’s a grass roots problem back home,” he said.

“People don’t take it seriously, the fielding, when they play for their respective associations and different departments and for their regions.

“This is where we have to work really very, very hard and make sure when they come to Pakistan side that we don’t have problems.

“This is a serious problem. We practice every day and try all kind of different drills but at the end of the day they have to do it themselves.”

The Pakistan side does not have a specialist fielding coach, unlike other national cricket sides.

Asked if his side needed a specialist fielding coach, Intikhab said: “I don’t think it will do much difference really”.

“At the end of the day the players have to have the confidence in their ability really and as I said, it is a serious problem.”

Aamer did not bowl in the middle session as Ponting and Michael Clarke set about taking the game away from the tourists.

It was assumed he was injured but Intikhab said Aamer had been able and available to bowl.

Aamer left the field at one stage to cut a hole in his boot, to relieve pressure on a toe, Intikhab said.

“There is nothing wrong with him,” Intikhab said.

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