February 08, 2008	Friday	Muharram 29, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 7: Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar on Thursday said he was not consulted over his captaincy role for the Pentangular Cup and was still unsure about taking up the assignment.

The Pakistan Cricket Board made it amply clear last week that Shoaib’s future in the national team depended over his participation in the Pentangular Cup, which begins on Sunday, as the selectors wanted to assess the pacer’s match-fitness in the event.

When contacted by Dawn, Shoaib was a bit reluctant to speak on the offer of captaincy but said he was not consulted on the assignment and will decide in a day or two about it.

The controversial speedster refrained from saying much on the topic but sources close to him confirmed to Dawn that he was not exactly happy over the way he had been treated by the PCB in the past few weeks, particularly on the Central Contract issue.

The PCB recently announced one-year central contracts - Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2008 - but did not include Shoaib in any of the four categories, citing reasons pertaining to pacer’s match-fitness for the move. However, under special category PCB has offered Shoaib Rs 75,000 per month but the Rawalpindi Express has not shown any interest in the package so far.

Sources say that Shoaib’s grouse over the central contracts is somewhat justified since the PCB has erred badly in outlining the criteria for awarding the same.

In a case of blatant double standards, the board has given ‘A’ category to another unfit fast bowler Mohammad Asif who has been out of action for several months due to a nagging elbow injury.

Asif missed out on 80 per cent of the games that Pakistan played in the last six months - the period on which the new central contracts have been based.

Similarly, leg-spinner Danish Kaneria has also expressed his concern over his relegation to ‘C’ category in the contracts despite his consistent availability for the team. Kaneria contended that his seniority, fitness, attitude and availability for the matches during the last six months were enough to raise his points under the new system and he definitely deserved a place ahead of Asif.

Shoaib, apparently, is also unhappy over his exclusion from the recently-concluded Zimbabwe series for which he had declared his availability well before time.

Meanwhile, the reports of Shoaib seriously considering an offer from the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL) have also been taking rounds here.

Sources disclosed that since Shoaib had only signed an MoU for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with regards to his affiliation with the Indian Premier League (IPL), there was no legal hurdle in his way to switch to the ICL instead in the coming days.