Woolmer brings out the spirit of bonding

BIRMINGHAM: Right since the beginning of time (or indeed its birth), the Pakistani team has been known for its extraordinary talent, its ability to come up with spectacular performances and, of course, its infighting and ego hassles.
It''s, in fact, believed that it might be easier to tame a bunch of wild buffalos than to knit the Pakistanis into a battling unit.All that seems to be changing.
Coach Bob Woolmer has already introduced various team-bonding and spirit-building measures and one got another glimpse of it as they were winding up their session in the nets on Friday afternoon.
Woolmer walked up to the far end of the indoor hall and placed a set of wickets in each of the three batting lanes and four balls each at the other end; he then divided the players into three groups of four players each and explained the game.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Yasir Hameed and Mohammed Sami formed the first group; Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq and Yousuf Youhana the second; and Azhar Mahmood, Shahid Afridi, Moin Khan and Naved-ul-Hasan the last one.
The Pakistanis were suddenly all eager and excited; the entire session, in fact, underlined that they were aware of their common goal and would do anything to attain it. For close to two hours, they played together, helped and encouraged each other and kept laughing and playing pranks.
They have probably never felt so unified in their lives.
At the first sign from Woolmer, one player from each group got up, raced about 10 yards, picked up the ball and hurled at the wickets. Each hit was awarded with ten points. But his job didn''t end there: he had to pick up the second ball and place it on the orange cone for the next guy coming in; he would then come back and literally fall into somebody''s lap.
In less than 20 seconds, the game was over. As they raced towards the ball, the entire hall was converted into a pool of cacophony. They shouted in encouragement, screamed if somebody missed and celebrated like little kids if they got it right.
Even Akhtar and Inzamam couldn''t stop themselves from participating in the fun; the Indian team, which was practising in the same hall, couldn''t stop itself from stealing glances at the Pakistani camp. The two teams presented a stark contrast: the Indians looked like a bunch of domesticated cats at work while the Pakistanis seemed like wild bulls at a party.
The team which finished first was awarded 20 extra points. The game was repeated five times. Needless to say, Inzamam finished last on each occasion.
But he surely looked happy.