KARACHI: Pakistan’s preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup will be announced next week, a statement from the PCB said on Friday.

A list of 30 probable players for the February-April cricket showpiece has to be submitted by each participant country’s cricket board, before short-listing a final squad.

Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) National Selection Committee held a meeting in Lahore, but delayed the announcement of the squad as the board is currently deliberating the fate of Kamran Akmal, Danish Kaneria and Shoaib Malik.

The trio have yet to be cleared by the PCB over their suspected involvement in cricket corruption.

The committee, headed by Mohsin Hasan Khan, includes Mohammad Ilyas, Asif Baloch, Azhar Khan and Farukh Zaman.

“We had lengthy discussions on performance and availability of many players. We were of the opinion that since we still have a few days before the deadline for announcing the World Cup Squad it would be better to wait until there is absolute clarity from PCB on the availability for selection of certain players,” Khan said after the meeting.

PCB has to submit the list of probables to the International Cricket Council by January 5, the board will also finalise the squad for the one-day international series against New Zealand.