February 12, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 04 ,1429

LAHORE, Feb 11: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday issued explanation letters to maverick paceman Shoaib Akhtar and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria for criticising the board in the media.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today has issued letters to Shoaib Akhtar and Danish Kaneria, seeking their explanation on their recently published article/statement in the media.

“In these letters which have been issued from the office of Cricket Operations department, the players have been asked to confirm these statements, which criticise the PCB and its policies and in case of affirmation, explain their position,” a PCB spokesman said in a press statement on Tuesday.

“A one-week time frame has been given to them for responding to the same.”

Shoaib had criticised the PCB allegedly for its ‘double standards’ over the criterion for his match-fitness on different occasions.

He had stated that no one asked for his match-fitness before including him for the last One-day International of the home series against South Africa in Lahore after he had missed out four matches of the same series due to a long ban on him.

In contrast, he had said, on making himself available for the recent home series against Zimbabwe, the PCB did not bother to call him for any of the five ODIs. Furthermore, the enigmatic pacer had stated, now the board made him captain of the Federal Areas (FA) for the Pentangular Cup, without asking him about his fitness.

Kaneria voiced his anger for his demotion from ‘B’ category of the new central contract to ‘C’.

He had criticised the PCB in the media that, except for Pakistan’s leg-spin master Abdul Qadir, although he was the third best bowler of the country after the legendary pace duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis but the treatment given to him was unjust.