“My desire is to walk away on my own conditions”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Veteran Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has announced that he is determined to represent his country at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Khan, whose last ODI for Pakistan came in March 2013, also noted that he would prefer to retire on his own terms instead of being dropped for good or told to do so by the national selectors.

“Whatever format I played I always tried to give my best,” Khan said. “But I don’t have a long-term goal that I want to play the 2015 or 2019 World Cup, my desire is to play as much cricket and keep up my role-model performance. A player like me, who has played 14-15 years of top cricket and played all forms of cricket, his career shouldn’t be ended like being classified as only a Test player.

“My desire is to walk away on my own conditions, playing in every form of the game I am available to play, rather than being dropped. I obviously want commit myself to playing ODIs and whenever I get a chance I surely would like to grab the opportunity to play the World Cup.”

According to National Cricket Academy head coach Mohammad Akram, Khan is actually one of the fittest players despite being one of the more older players present at the ongoing training camp in Lahore.

Khan added that he will continue to play to the best of his ability and do whatever it takes to keep his spot in the Test team and regain his place in the ODI squad.

“I might play for the next 10 years, but it’s all about time and hunger for the game,” Khan said. “I am almost in the fourteenth year of my career and it’s very difficult to maintain your top performance playing at top level. After all, we are human and we can’t maintain the much needed consistency, and sometime you lose interest.

“Such camps actually are very important to know yourself inside out – understand where you stand, what is the fitness level and how much we need to improve. It is good to get a window in international cricket. We unfortunately have lost the home advantage and mostly are on tours, hence no time for such extensive camps. So I took the opportunity to get myself tuned.”