July 27, 2007	Friday	Rajab 11, 1428

KARACHI, July 26 The third phase of the national cricket training-cum-conditioning camp will get underway here at the National Stadium from Friday with 26 cricketers participating in it.

The significant feature of the Karachi camp will be the twelve Twenty20 practice games in which the probables would try their utmost to catch the selectors’ attention since they are due to finalize the Pakistan squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in September.

The probables also played in several Twenty20 matches during the Lahore camp which concluded on Monday.

On Friday, two such matches are scheduled. The first game is slated to begin at 10:00am while the second will take place at 2.00pm. The probables based outside Karachi were scheduled to arrive in the city by Thursday evening.

Younis Khan, the former Pakistan vice-captain who is certainty for the Twenty20 World Championship, has been exempted from the camp along with leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and all-rounder Yasir Arafat. All three of them are currently busy playing in the English County Championship. Reserve wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider has also been granted exemption from the camp.

According to the programme devised by the Pakistan Cricket Board, two matches will be played every alternate day till the conclusion of the camp on Aug 6. The 15-man Pakistan squad is expected to be announced before the Aug 11 deadline set by the game’s governing body, the International Cricket Council.

The South Africa-bound Pakistan squad will attend a final training camp from Aug 19-26 in Lahore. New national coach Geoff Lawson, the former Australian fast bowler, will take charge of the national team during the final stage of the camp.

Lawson had a brief meeting with his charges in the first phase of the camp in Abbottabad last month when he visited the country after being short-listed by PCB for an interview for coach’s position.

The Twenty20 World Championship, which was officially launched in Johannesburg on Thursday, begins on Sept 11 with hosts South Africa facing West Indies at the Wanderers, and ends on Sept 24 with the final, also in Johannesburg.

The following players will be participating in the camp: Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt (vice-captain), Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Faisal Iqbal, Imran Nazir, Abdur Rehman, Naved Latif, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Rao Iftikhar, Najaf Shah, Mohammad Irshad Khurram Manzoor, Shahid Yousuf, Khalid Latif and Sohail Tanvir.

Camp officials: Talat Ali (camp commandant), Haroon Rasheed (batting coach), Aaqib Javed (bowling coach), Mohtashim Rashid (fielding coach), Talha (analyst), Faisal Hayat (physiotherapist), Dr Riaz Ahmed (trainer), Malang Ali (kit man).