Psychologist feels Pak can lift T20 World Cup

Karachi:

Sports psychologist Maqbool Bari feels Pakistan players have the ability and confidence to win the ICC World Twenty20 if they play as a unit.

Bari has been hired by the Pakistan Cricket Board to counsel the players as part of their preparations for the World Cup in England next month.

He held one-to-one sessions last week on the sidelines of the practice matches in Lahore and will have a group sitting before the team leaves for England on Saturday.

"Sports psychology is nowadays widely being used to motivate top athletes because when you compete at the top level there is always that underlying fear of failure at the back of the athlete's mind that hampers his performance," Bari said.

"Some years back Mohammad Yousuf was going through a bad patch because he got scared of failures. I had a session with him and he went onto make loads of runs against South Africa and Bangladesh. That is how important sports psychology counselling is these days in top sports," he added.

He said during the one-on-one sessions with the players, he tried to remove all such fears of failure and motivate them to believe in themselves and build up confidence to handle the pressures of a World Cup.

"When I meet with them again I will try to implant in their minds that cricket is a team game and everyone should play for each other and not for himself as an individual," he said.