March 26, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1429

LAHORE, March 25: Pace spearheads Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul will be selected for the forthcoming home One-day International series against Bangladesh after the selectors receive their availability from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed said on Tuesday.

“The selection committee will hold a meeting in Lahore on Saturday and it will first ask the PCB about the availability of players like Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul before finalising the team,” Salahuddin, who will finalise the squad for the series on Saturday, told Dawn on Tuesday.

The Bangladesh squad will reach Pakistan on April 6 to play five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20.

Shoaib is facing a disciplinary inquiry, which has been pending now for the last two months for unknown reasons. Asif and Umar are facing fitness problems and need a fitness certificate from trainer David Dwyer.

Umar has only played only one match in the ongoing National one-day tournament, the fourth round of which is starting from Wednesday.

Shoaib and Asif, like captain Shoaib Malik did not play even a single match of the Cup. Therefore, their match-fitness is questionable.

For the Bangladesh series, the chief selector said, the best available team would be selected, adding he did not consider Bangladesh a weak team.

“The best performers in the ongoing National One-day Cup with all the available senior players will be considered for the series,” he asserted.

About prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf the chief selector said he had been improving his fitness, emphasising he was still a key batsman of the team. Yousuf has played only one match of the One-day Cup, against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and scored 83.

However, Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik had totally ignored the much important tournament and there are reports that he is out of the country.

Salahuddin stated that he had no confrontation with Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson, saying he always consulted him before finalising the team.

He avoided making any comment on a recent news report in a section of the press that Lawson was not happy with two key players — Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf — and that the coach had also expressed his views before the Governing Board members at the Lahore meeting last Saturday.

“I don’t know about any such views of Lawson, so I am unable to make any comment on it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lawson while talking to reporters here on Tuesday, said he had no problem with any Pakistani player and added that during the Governing Board meeting in Lahore he had only emphasised on ways to make the Pakistan team stronger.

On the forthcoming home series against Bangladesh, Lawson said senior Pakistan players would be tested against the visitors since they were coming to Pakistan after a tough home series against South Africa.