The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Rameez all praise for Woolmer, Inzamam

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Monday, Jul 24, 2006

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Rameez all praise for Woolmer, Inzamam

Lahore: Pleased with the new look Pakistan squad which is united like never before, former captain Rameez Raja has said that the credit for the current bonhomie in the side goes to coach Bob Woolmer and skipper Inzamam-ul Haq, who have even managed to teach mercurial pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar to respect team spirit.

``The way these guys have come in and helped Pakistan win, it has also had a positive effect on Shoaib Akhtar. He saw that while he was out of the team he was losing his fan following, which he craves. That made him knuckle down and join in with the team ethic. Pakistan proved that they didn't need 90 miles-per-hour to win matches,'' Rameez said in an interview to a website.

Delighted that the captain and the coach had changed the face of Pakistani cricket by uniting the team and supporting talents like Shahid Afridi, who, though unpredictable, was still a match-winner.

``I'm delighted with how things have gone because we now see Pakistan playing as a team and not as individuals, which is quite a sea change,'' he said.

``Bob and Inzy have been able to incorporate new talent like Mohammad Asif and also brought back Shahid Afridi and invigorated him and have been able to extract the unique talent that we always knew he possessed,'' he added, praising the captain-coach duo.

Rameez said the team was a better unit under Inzamam as the players respected him a lot, which had a binding effect on them.

``I have great regard for the team's character under Inzamam. He has got them playing together as a unit so there are a lot of positives with the Pakistan side,'' Rameez said. — UNI

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