March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

LAHORE, March 26: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is not prepared to give controversial speedster Shoaib Akhtar a chance to clear his name in a disciplinary case which will give him the opportunity to play in the home series against Bangladesh.

The controversial pacer is facing a disciplinary charge for criticizing the PCB in public as well as of breach of the Code of Conduct about two months ago.

The PCB Governing Board’s sub disciplinary committee, headed by Munir Hafeez, has however not held the hearing into the case during the two-month period for reasons best known to it.

Now the committee has summoned Shoaib to appear before it in Rawalpindi on April 1 while the national selection committee is scheduled to meet in Lahore on March 29 to announce the team for the series which commences from April 8. It looks certain that the selectors will not have Shoaib’s clearance before the BD series in view of committee’s hearing.

It is also learnt that an earlier attempt to hold the disciplinary committee meeting on March 22 could not materialise since Shoaib was informed barely two hours before the start of the meeting.

Meanwhile, Shoaib has said that he is ready to play against Bangladesh and is ready to prove his match-fitness by appearing in the matches of the national one-day cup. “I want to double my wicket tally to over 400 in both Tests and the one-dayers and am keen to serve my country at all times,” he said in a statement.