KARACHI, Feb 21: The manager of the Pakistan cricket team Talat Ali, while confirming the altercation between coach Bob Woolmer and fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar in South Africa, has expressed surprise over the coverage of the unfortunate incident by television cameras during the second Test at Port Elizabeth.

Sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board have confirmed that Talat, in his tour report submitted to the board this week, has said that the altercation took place before start of the play during the warm up session after Woolmer felt Shoaib's hamstring injury was not of serious nature. Talat, a former Test opener, has however questioned the ‘shock’ coverage of the incident by the television cameras who were, apparently, positioned at the Pakistan dressing room much before the start of play when normally the coverage starts just 15 minutes before a match.

"Talat believes that someone could have tipped off the television crew about the incident and asked the TV crew to pan on the dressing room for the altercation between the coach and the fast bowler," one source said.

However, there is no mention in Talat’s report of Woolmer using any abusive language or racist taunts against the controversial pacer. The source said Woolmer also in his report had mentioned no such incident but has written about Shoaib Akhtar’s case in detail.

Woolmer's altercation with Shoaib has come at a time when he is already facing communication problems with senior board officials. A source in PCB confirmed that Woolmer had tried to convince Chairman Dr Naseem Ashraf to allow him to use a software programe called "Hawkeye" but was refused permission for this despite giving an elaborate presention in South Africa.

The source said Woolmer's proposal for Hawkeye was shot down on grounds that he should have made a case for it earlier and also since it was costing around 30,000 pounds per year for its usage. The programme, Woolmer insisted, would have helped him in assisting the bowlers in improving their line and length.

It is no secret that Director Cricket Operations Saleem Altaf has never felt convinced about Woolmer's ability to deliver the goods for Pakistan and that he has been an overpaid/under-performing coach.

"In South Africa at one time during a meeting, Saleem confronted Woolmer by pointing out to him that he had worked no wonders for the team as it had lost ten and won only four overseas Tests under him and had not managed to win any notable one-day competitions.

"The manager (Talat Ali) has told the board that Woolmer now allows assistant coach Mushtaq Ahmed to organize the training and practice sessions and has done nothing to make captain Inzamam-ul-Haq to attend these sessions regularly." —Agencies