Pakistan’s run away wicket-keeper Zulqarnain Haider is left with no other options but to rue his exclusion from his own regional team. All his efforts went in vain when he approached other regional teams for his inclusion in the team for the next month’s T20 Championship to be held at Lahore. The event was originally planned to be held at Rawalpindi but was shifted to Lahore. Desperate to stage a comeback in the national fold, Zulqarnian was to give in domestic cricket before staking claim for return to the international scene.
The LCCA announced the two squads on Tuesday with Test players Abdul Razzaq and Taufiq Umar as the captains but didn’t name controversial keeper Zulqarnain in either team. First he was dropped from both the Lahore region teams where Kamran Akmal and Adnan Akaml will be keeping the wickets. After that his searching went wider for a team to other regions to play in the T20 Championship but no one was willing to accept him. Karachi and Multan were not even in a mood to look at him while his approach to Multan also did not yield any results because they preferred their own keeper Gulraiz.
“It is disappointing to not be considered in either of the two Lahore teams because this is my home region and if they don’t play me who will select me,” Haider complained. He also alleged on his Facebook page that the Akmal brothers manipulated his ouster. But LCCA President Kh Nadeem said that they have much better and performing players to fill the void. “Zulqarnain was out of cricket for the last one year and in cricket of the style of T20 we require cricketers with performance. So we opted for better performers,” he maintained.
Zulqarnain gets selection snub from all regions
