May 31, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1428

JOHANNESBURG, May 30: The star-shorn Afro-Asia Cup has received another blow with Shaun Pollock, the South African all-rounder, saying that he will play only as a batsman in the tournament featuring three One-day Internationals to be staged in Bangalore and Chennai from June 6.

“I’m going as a batsman only,” Pollock said. “I had a minor operation to remove a growth from my foot and it’s still very painful at the moment, especially for bowling. But you know me – I won’t miss a chance to move up the batting order and get some quality time at the crease.”

The African squad was already missing several key South Africans such as Graeme Smith, who was recovering from an arthroscopic knee operation, and Jacques Kallis. Andre Nel and Andrew Hall were not available because of county commitments in England. Doubts also linger over the participation of Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher although they were named in the squad of 15 that included three Kenyans and three Zimbabweans.

The Asian squad was also depleted with the withdrawals of Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, due to injury, and India’s Sachin Tendulkar.

The Sri Lankan trio of Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas had also opted out earlier because of county assignments.—Agencies