Shoaib and Kaneria omitted from World Cup squad
LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selection committee, headed by Mohsin Hasan Khan, on Tuesday left out former captain Shoaib Malik and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria but recalled wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal to a 30-man preliminary squad named for the World Cup 2011. Shahid Afridi is expected to retain the one-day captaincy. The 10th World Cup will be hosted jointly by Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka from February 19 to April 2, with 14 teams competing. A squad for six one-days against New Zealand will be announced next week.
Senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf and all-rounder Rana Navedul Hasan have also been included in the squad after a PCB integrity committee had investigated Malik, Kamran and Kaneria. The trio have not participated for Pakistan in any format since the summer tour to England. Kaneria was part of the Test squad for the South Africa series in the UAE but was prevented from travelling by the board at the very last minute. Naved was among the seven players who were either suspended or fined by the PCB after the disastrous tour of Australia last year but is now a strong contender to be included when the squad is trimmed to 15 players later this month.
The PCB hasn’t said so publicly but the trio have been under suspicion in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal that has rocked Pakistan cricket. Kamran was the subject of the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit notice earlier this year but has since asked for and received a written clearance from the ICC. Kamran, 28, has been out of the team since Pakistan’s most recent tour of England. He was also not selected for the team’s neutral-venue series against South Africa. He was excluded from the Twenty20 and Test squad for the New Zealand tour despite recovering from an appendix operation. He has since featured in domestic matches and scored his highest first-class score of 268. Kaneria’s name featured in a separate spot-fixing scandal at Essex county. Malik has not been linked with any specific incident though he features regularly in the fevered speculation and gossip of Pakistan cricket structure.
The integrity committee was set up after Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir were suspended last year after a British tabloid report alleging they had arranged for deliberate no-balls to be delivered in the fourth Test against England. The trio will face an ICC anti-corruption tribunal in Doha this week. The PCB had sought a deadline of January 5 from the ICC to finalise its preliminary squad because of the ongoing inquiry against Kamran, Malik and Kaneira.
The names of the probables were released after a nearly three-hour meeting of the national selection committee. “Apparently Kaneria and Malik were not able to satisfy the integrity committee about their recent activities but Kamran managed to win the confidence of the PCB back by submitting all relevant documents the integrity committee asked for,” a source said. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt acknowledged in a statement that there was lot of speculation in the media “regarding clearance or otherwise of players by the integrity committee which has given its views on some players to the selection committee.” Ijaz did not mention either Malik or Kaneria but said “the selection committee has taken into consideration” the input of the integrity committee.
The selectors have also recalled left-handed opening batsman Nasir Jamshed. 21-year-old Nasir has scored 353 runs in 12 one-day internationals but has not featured in the national team since his last ODI against Sri Lanka in 2009. He was also arrested in April last year for cheating during a school exam before a court released him on a surety bond of Rs20,000. Chief selector Mohsin said that he had met with his fellow selectors on multiple occasions and they were satisfied that they had selected the best squad. “I request the whole nation to back the selected players who need all the encouragement to win the World Cup,” said Mohsin, a former Pakistan opener.
Pakistan preliminary squad: Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shahzad, Nasir Jamshed, Umar Akmal, Younus Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbahul Haq, Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Sohail Tanvir, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Abdul Rehman, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Salman Ahmed, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Taufiq Umar, Zulfiqar Babar, Rana Navedul Hasan, Yasir Arafat, Yasir Shah, Aizaz Cheema, Naved Yasin and Asad Ali.
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