Mohammad Yousuf should not have been dropped from the national team for the Twenty20 World Cup.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had to receive a lot of flak for dropping the ICC Test Player of the Year, Mohammad Yousuf, from the national cricket team for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.

The selection committee, headed by former Test cricketer Salahuddin Ahmed, also dropped all-rounder Abdul Razzaq from the 15-man squad announced on Aug 7, 2007. The other two selectors of the committee are Shafqat Rana and Saleem Jafar. A disgusted Razzaq, struggling to regain his fitness and form, later announced his retirement from international cricket.

The handsomely paid three-member selection committee, appointed by the PCB in April this year in the wake of Pakistan’s World Cup debacle in the West Indies, was bitterly criticised for leaving out master batsman Yousuf who on countless occasions had played extraordinary innings for Pakistan.

Yousuf is a world class batsman and last year (2006) he broke former West Indies skipper Viv Richards’ 30-year- old record of most runs (1,770) by getting 1,788 in 11 Tests in a calendar year. He is also the sixth Pakistani to score a century in each innings of a Test match. Dropping Yousuf indicated that the new selection committee wanted to show its power and authority to the players, but the whole thing backfired. The PCB had to use its resources and connections to get Yousuf back in the Pakistan team without the consultation and approval of the selection committee

The dropping of the 32-year-old middle order batsman by the selection committee was unwise and put the PCB and its chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf in an embarrassing situation.

Some suggest that Yousuf’s ouster was blown out of proportion. But his case is unique as he’s our highly reliable batsman having scored 8,081 runs in 242 One-Day Internationals. He should have been selected in the team for the World Twenty20 Championship. It was a new version of the game of cricket after Test and ODIs and the selection committee has perhaps tarnished its reputation by axing Yousuf. If he had been in the team Pakistan might have lifted the World Twenty20 trophy. Nevertheless, getting to the final in a new version of the game was a big achievement in itself.

Disheartened and upset over his ouster from the Twenty20 team, Yousuf did not sign the PCB central contract, which meant he would not be playing for the country. Instead of remaining cool, Yousuf acted rather unwisely when he preferred to sign the controversial multimillion dollar breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL). It is generally believed that former Pakistan captain Inzamamul Haq, who retired from One-Day Internationals after Pakistan’s dismal performance in the World Cup, had made himself available for Test matches. Inzamam wanted to surpass Javed Miandad’s record of 8,832 runs. But the selection committee insisted that he had to prove his fitness and form to get a place in the Test side.

According to sources, Inzamam has joined the ICL. According to press reports, Abdur Razzaq and Imran Farhat have also joined the ICL whose Twenty20 championship will kick off next month. The PCB has already warned the players that those who join the ICL will be barred from getting selected in the team.

PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf explored every possibility and made efforts to get Yousuf back in the team by making the batsman sign the central contract on September 27 despite the fact that he had already signed a contract with the ICL. It was very challenging to get Yousuf to sign the central contract, but Nasim Ashraf finally succeeded and assured himthat if the ICL took any legal action against him for not honouring his commitment the PCB would provide legal help and support to Yousuf.

A couple of weeks ago, at a reception in Karachi, Nasim Ashraf lauded the national team’s performance in the Twenty20 World Cup and gave away cash prizes to members of the team that finished second in the tournament. Yousuf received a cheque of Rs6 million for achieving the ICC Best Test player of the Year Award, the first award ever received by any Pakistani cricketer.

However, after being named in the 15-member team for the first Test against South Africa at Karachi Yousuf unexpectedly opted out of the playing XI on the pretext that he lacked match fitness. Let’s see what more is in the offing.