LAHORE – Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi will meet PCB chairman Ijaz Butt at the PCB headquarters on Monday to finalise the probables for the 2011 World Cup and the 15-man squad for the ODI series in New Zealand.
Afridi arrived in Lahore on Friday night from Christchurch after the end of the three-match Twenty20 series for the meeting. He will leave on Monday night to join the team in Hamilton for the first Test against New Zealand starting on January 7.
A top official in the PCB said that Butt wants to discuss the probables with Afridi before giving the green signal to national selectors to announce the preliminary squad for World Cup 2011 as well as the squad for the seven-match ODI series against New Zealand. Pakistan are to name their 30-man provisional squad for World Cup 2011 by January 5.
The national selection committee headed by former Test opener Mohsin Khan is also supposed to decide the 15-man ODI squad for the series against the Black Caps within the next few days. All participating teams of World Cup 2011 were asked to name their preliminary squads by Dec 19, two months before the quadrennial spectacle gets underway in the subcontinent. But Pakistan were unable to meet the deadline because their three key players are seeking a ‘clearance’ for national duty.
Following a PCB request, Pakistan were allowed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to name their squad by January 5. Akmal, Malik future lies in limbo: The Pakistan Cricket Board has not taken any decision on the future of Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik for the World Cup. The PCB is relying on the International Cricket Council’s judgement before taking major decisions.
As the January 5 deadline of submitting the team approaches, the PCB is still awaiting the ICC’s reply seeking permission to select the tainted players like Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik. It has been learnt that the PCB’s integrity committee finalised its report on Akmal, Malik and Danish Kaneria and sent it to the ICC for final clearance and now it is awaiting its reply. It has been learnt that the PCB has again approached the ICC to allow it to select players involved in the spot-fixing scandal in their preliminary World Cup squad.
The PCB has not yet cleared the names of wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal, all-rounder Shoaib Malik and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, pending clearance for their suspected role in the spot-fixing scandal. Former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt, pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer already remain suspended by the ICC over charges of spot-fixing during the Lord’s Test against England in August.
Pakistan has time until January 5 to announce a 30-man preliminary squad for the World Cup to be held in the subcontinent. The PCB’s national selection committee concluded a two-day meeting in Lahore on Friday but deferred the announcement of the squad for the World Cup, as the trio is yet to be cleared by the board over their alleged links with bookmakers. Chief selector Mohsin Khan, who chaired the meeting, admitted that the announcement had been delayed due to questions over availability of some players.
He said since they had time until January 5 to announce the squad, they wanted to be doubly sure about getting clearance from the board on certain players. Reports said that the board had informed the national selectors about contacting the ICC again for assistance. “Basically, the PCB has asked the ICC for its views on giving clearance to Malik, Akmal and even leg-spinner, Danish Kaneria,” a PCB source said.
“They want to first get the nod from the ICC before deciding on whether they should select Akmal and Malik for the World Cup preliminary squad and for the one-day series in New Zealand,” the source added. The source said that some of the members of the integrity committee, who interviewed the three players on Wednesday, were not satisfied with the explanation given by Akmal in particular about his sources of income.
