LAHORE, July 27 Taking note of yet another case of breach of discipline, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday served a notice to beleaguered paceman Shoaib Akhtar, who has been accused of slamming board officials in a statement to the media, which is tantamount to violation of his contract.

One of the PCB's directors, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the notice was served under the central contract's clauses of 4.1, 4.2 and 4.4, adding the bowler had been instructed to give the reply by July 31.

The director said it was a seven-day notice, issued on July 25. However, sources close to Shoaib told Dawn the notice was issued hastily on Sunday.

Shoaib, the right-arm speedster who will be 34 on Aug 13, had criticised the PCB for disclosing the nature of the disease he was suffering from at the time of national team's departure to England for the World Twenty20, to the media and had said he reserved the right to go to a court of law.

However, the enigmatic pace bowler had said that he did not want to indulge in any legal dispute.

Shoaib had been included in the World Twenty20 squad but then dropped due to the disease and right-arm medium-pacer Rao Iftikhar was selected to replace him. However, the team management did not utilise Rao in any of the matches at the World Twenty20.Distinctively mysterious, Shoaib has missed a major part of Pakistan matches throughout his up-and-down career marred by a chain of injuries, several cases of indiscipline and blotted by doping controversy.

He played his last Test against India in Bangalore in December 2007 while his last ODI was in May this year when he represented Pakistan against Australia in Abu Dhabi.

Though his high-speed deliveries has troubled several world's top batsmen, the bowler has more or less remained wayward on many crucial occasions when his team needed him most. In a nutshell, Shoaib, often called 'Rawalpindi Express', has been an underachiever. The bowler has missed prestigious events like the 2006 Champions Trophy, 2007 World Cup and the 2007 and 2009 editions of the World Twenty20.

Shoaib, who has featured in 46 Tests, 144 one-dayers and seven Twenty20 Internationals for Pakistan, since arriving at the international scene in November 1997, had also alleged that he was fit to play the World Twenty20 but was dropped on the pretext of the disease. But as the bowler had issued a statement some three weeks ago, a late action by the PCB raised various doubts.

Sources said the PCB had almost ignored his press statements, but something went wrong on Sunday, which forced the PCB to serve him the notice.

Shoaib rang up a PCB top official on Sunday, sources added, and the disgruntled bowler expressed his disappointment for being dropped even from the list of 30 probables announced for the ICC Champions Trophy on July 22.

It may be mentioned here that Iqbal Qasim — the designated-head of the new national selection committee — had advised the one-man interim selection committee of Wasim Bari to pick Shoaib in the list of 30. But after Bari consulted the name of the bowler with the national team management in Sri Lanka during the third Test in Colombo, the proposal was rejected.