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| April 30, 2003 | Wednesday | Safar 27, 1424 |
Controversial Shoaib named for tri-series
ISLAMABAD, April 29: The bad boy of Pakistan cricket, Shoaib Akhtar, was on Tuesday controversially recalled to the national squad for next month’s triangular tournament in Sri Lanka.
After being dropped for the Sharjah tournament earlier this month because of a dismal showing in the recent World Cup in southern Africa, Shoaib earned the selectors’ nod as did uncapped duo of batsmen Faisal Athar and Yasir Hameed and fast bowler Shabbir Ahmed.
Chairman of the PCB, Lt Gen Tauqir Zia himself announced the squad at the KRL Stadium for the tournament that runs between May 10 and 23 and also involves Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
The squad sees four changes from the side that won this month’s Sharjah Cup under Rashid Latif with batsmen Misbah-ul-Haq and Naved Latif, all-rounder Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan and fast bowler Mohammad Zahid out.
They have made way for Faisal and Yasir, and pacers Shoaib and Shabbir.
Faisal, a right-handed batsman, made his first class debut in the 1998-99 season and has scored 1603 runs at an average of 36.43 with four centuries. He plays for Hyderabad and Sui Gas. In domestic one-day matches, he has 456 runs to his credit in 15 outings, averaging 30.40.
Yasir on the other hand plays for Peshawar and PIA. He is another right-handed batsman has scored 3311 runs in 61 matches at an average of 36.78 with his highest score being 207. In domestic one-dayers, he averages 33.44 having scored 1271 runs with 109 his best.
Shabbir, who was charged for chucking by match referee Peter van de Merwe of South Africa in Toronto in 1999 and was finally cleared by Michael Holding in 2000 is also in the party, which Gen Tauqir hoped would do well in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan are due to play the hosts in their first match on May 10 and will then take on New Zealand the following day.
While Gen Tauqir said he expected the team to put in their best, he warned the players that a small case of indiscipline would mean the first flight home. “The team management has been told not to tolerate indiscipline and send the player home as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, responding to a question on the continuing omission of upcoming all-rounder Yasir Arafat, Gen Tauqir said that since there will be turning wickets in Sri Lanka, another all-rounder Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan, who plays for Allied Bank, had also not been included. “Obviously if he is not in, there was no point in taking Yasir along.”
But the General made it clear that Yasir could walk into the squad any day now. Both players were however not on the list of probables that had been named for the camp at Lahore.
Squad: Taufiq Umer, Mohammad Hafeez, Faisal Athar, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Faisal Iqbal, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Malik, Rashid Latif (captain), Danish Kaneria, Umar Gul, Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar and Shabbir Ahmed.
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