15 May,2009 03:12 PM IST | | PTI
Former captain Zaheer Abbas has opposed the Pakistan Cricket Board's idea of hiring a sports psychologist to help cricketers cope up with the pressure and perform well in the Twenty20 World Cup starting on June 5 in England.
Abbas feels Pakistan team desperately needs a specialist batting coach to improve consistency rather than 'lectures' from a sports psychologist.
"I don't understand what purpose will it serve to have a sports psychologist give lectures to the players. Because it is obvious that the team's main problem is the batting not clicking consistently as it should," Abbas said.
"The board should think about having a full-time batting coach with the team. And it is clear their fielding also needs to improve," he added.
Despite some good works from the bowling line-up, it were the batsmen who had let the team down and that should be corrected before the T20 World Cup, Abbas feels.
"They should be concentrating a lot on removing the chinks in their batting techniques."
Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam had said that psychologist Maqbool Babri will have one to one sessions with individual players and also hold group sessions in a bid to improve their mental strength and keep them focused in trying conditions.
Meanwhile, another former cricketer Mohsin Khan also rejected the idea of hiring a psychologist to work with the players.
"These players are not small children but professionals and they should know what they are supposed to do on the field. I belong to the old school of thought and I don't know if having a sports psychologist giving lectures will really help to improve the performance of these players in the World Cup," Mohsin said.
