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| September 15, 2003 | Monday | Rajab 17, 1424 |
Junaid to lead Pakistan in Emerging Trophy
LAHORE, Sept 14: Medium-pacer Junaid Zia was on Sunday surprisingly named to lead Pakistan Under-23 team while former Test captain Moin Khan was retained as skipper for the Hong Kong Sixes event.
Junaid, who made his full international in the current one-day series against Bangladesh, will captain the side in the Emerging Trophy in Colombo as the selectors overlooked the credentials of several players who played Tests.
The organisers had originally scheduled tournament to be played between Sept 20 and 28, but for some reasons it was delayed.
Fresh dates and draws of the double-league contest is likely to be announced on Tuesday by the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF). India is the third team of this competition, besides Pakistan and the hosts Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong competition is scheduled to played on Nov 1 and 2.
Junaid, son of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Tauqir Zia, incidentally earned the captaincy honour the same day when his father officially retired from the Pakistan Army as Lieutenant General.
The selection of the Colombo-bound once again has exposed the selectors’ inconsistent policies as some emerging players who toured South Africa with Academy side had been overlooked.
Those missing out are Faisal Iqbal, who led the team to South Africa, Faisal Athar, Bilal Asad, Naved Latif, wicket-keeper Adnan Akmal and Abdul Rauf.
Moin, on the other hand, has been out of the senior squad ever since he was dumped as Pakistan captain in April 2001. But he had led the national team in the virtually meaningless Hong Kong Sixes event.
Squads:
PAKISTAN UNDER-23: Junaid Zia (captain), Qaiser Abbas (vice-captain), Babar Naeem, Usman Tariq, Shahid Yousuf, Asim Munir, Aamir Sajjad, Fawwad Alam, Amin-ur-Rehman (wicket-keeper), Yasir Arafat, Mansoor Amjad, Yasir Ali, Mohammad Khalil, Fahad Masood.
Stand-byes: Pir Zulfiqar Ali, Shahnawaz Malik, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Ahmed.
Officials: Azhar Zaidi (manager) and Naveed Anjum (coach).
PAKISTAN SQUAD FOR HONG KONG SIXES: Moin Khan (captain, wicket-keeper), Azhar Mahmood, Shahid Afridi, Naved Latif, Bilal Asad, Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat.
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