Sports

PCB defer team announcement

Razzaq, Kamran to be replaced for the West Indies tour.

Express April 05, 2011

LAHORE:

After hours of deliberation, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) opted to delay the team announcement for the tour of West Indies by a day.

The squad for the tour was due to be announced yesterday as the selection committee, headed by Mohsin Khan, met with PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt and limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi while deliberating over the squad before Pakistan travel to the Caribbean to play one Twenty20, five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and two Test matches.

The announcement was deferred in wake of the ceremony called by the Punjab chief minister in honour of the Pakistan team reaching the semi-final of the World Cup. The minister awarded each player a Rs500,000 award.

However, The Express Tribune understands that Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul and Younus Khan, who were part of the World Cup squad, will be rested to nurture younger players.

Miandad tipped as batting coach

Afridi said that he has asked the selection committee to consider having a permanent batting coach for the team. He also urged for the induction of younger players for the tour.

Talking to media after the meeting at the Gaddafi Stadium, the all-rounder said that he had advised the board to consider Javed Miandad as a batting consultant.

“Our biggest fear was our batting in the World Cup,” said Afridi. “So accepting there are batting problems we‘ve told Miandad that the country needs him.”

However, according to officials, Miandad is reluctant to have a full time position but would, instead, share tips with the squad if the PCB wants.

Afridi added that senior players will be rested for the tour and they would be replaced by young players.

Gul sidelined

Meanwhile, Gul’s inclusion was also doubtful and Afridi revealed that the fast-bowler “made himself unavailable so he will not be considered for the tour”.

During the meeting, four players were discussed to be called up for the tour including wicket-keeper Mohammad Salman, Tanvir Ahmed, Azhar Ali and Hammad Azam.

“I don’t fear any vacuum if the senior players are rested as our aim is to groom youngsters for the future. But that doesn’t mean we want to discard the seniors.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (6)

asad | 13 years ago | Reply i think we have to bring back our opener imran nazir he is very good player and also asim kamal but selection is not good they are all hungry for money.

Amer | 13 years ago | Reply There are some really shaddy elements in the selection committee at the moment and guys like the Akmal brothers & Imran Farhat are holding up the selection process. Kamran Akmal should be forced to retire now and Imran Farhat's name should not even be repeated again. We should always remmember that these are also the names that Mazhar Majeed spoke of as being on his books.

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Mirza | 13 years ago | Reply Speaking of bringing in new blood and giving rest to the senior players sounds good. However, the fact is Intikhab Alam is very old and was out of shape even in his prime. They should bring in somebody who is younger, more fit and brings in great batting credentials like Miandad. But looks like Mindad is not interested in a full-time job. In these circumstances offering Younus Khan or Mohd Yousuf the job of batting coach would be a good idea. Nobody has a better batting average in Pakistani history than Yousuf and then Younus. That would be a nice way to acknowledge their services to the nation. Perhaps this would never happen in Pakistan, but I would continue to tell the obvious truth. Bringing in coaches, trainers and managers with a mediocre record is a joke and nepotism. It is about time Intikhab Alam should call it a day for a youngster. We need a batting coach as good as Waqar Younus is for bowling that means either of the two batting greats I mentioned. Mirza, USA

Satish Chandra | 13 years ago | Reply The "Gates Foundation, which has $80 million worth partnership with Bihar government in health sector, has shown its interest in expanding cooperation in agricultural sector too ... said a beaming Gates while lavishing praise on chief minister Nitish Kumar sitting beside him" (Times of India, March 27 '11). Why does BEGGAR Bihar need Gates' CHARITY? Tamil Nadu gets Indian currency secretly printed in China which is used for numerous freebies to people -- from food to houses to mixers to color TVs to lap top computers, etc. -- for bribes to A. Raja and many other things because of which the Tamils have been calling Bihar and U.P. backward and stupid. This is what I said in my Press Release dated January 17, 2011:- "In my article titled "A Magical Solution to Disaster Relief" I gave the formula: the government should invite any and all individuals and organizations including companies to "Find a need and fill it and be reimbursed at double your cost" -- in normal times a 50% profit may be enough incentive -- to provide food, shelter. clothing and services to shanty-dwellers and be reimbursed at 50% over their cost; the only condition should be that the goods and services they provide must be ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION and not taken from existing supplies. The shanty-dwellers can also be employed for the production. The government has an unlimited amount of money simply by printing it so long as it is used for PRODUCTION; see my article "How India's Economy Can Grow 30% Per Year Or More" which can be found by a Google/Yahoo search with the title. The above applies to ALL goods and services to fill ALL societal needs." By suppressing any mention of me in the media via K. Subrahmanyam and C.I.A.-RAW, Tamils have been reaping the benefits of my work while denying them to the stupid North Indians who are full participants in this BEGGARING of India. And how has this BEGGARING of India been done? I have described it many dozens of times in these press releases, such as that dated January 30, 2011 and here it goes once more: "I am India's expert in strategic defence and the father of India's strategic program, including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. In my blog titled 'Nuclear Supremacy For India Over U.S.', which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, I have described how the C.I.A. keeps India poor, weak and enslaved: "India's greatest scientist and greatest living Indian publicly tortured in Harvard seminar, systematically and totally starved for up to 3 weeks at a time, made semi-starved and homeless and even blind for years, kept under 24-hour audio and video surveillance as well as surveillance of communications and electrical typewriter and computer use, document creation and photocopying, etc., by satellite for more than past 3 decades, systematically harassed and in poverty and neutralised and robbed of his work at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, robbed of crores in his money and property in India by C.I.A.-RAW, forced back into exile in the U.S., all with full cooperation and participation of India's RAW and India's C.I.A.-RAW-controlled prime ministers, politicians and media -- to keep India poor, weak and enslaved" and how this means the nuclear destruction of New Delhi and then the coast-to-coast destruction of the United States." According to India, five to six nuclear bombs have been prepositioned in various cities/countries such as New Delhi, Washington and New York. Three simultaneous explosions of twenty kiloton each in New Delhi, Washington and New York, with two or three in reserve for destroying additional U. S. cities if there is any retaliation, will end C.I.A.-rule over India. This will enable India to build, within five years, thousands of nuclear-armed missiles capable of reaching the United States and accomplish its coast-to-coast destruction. The banning of the book about the homosexuality of M. K. Gandhi -- like Nehru a lifelong British agent -- who wrote to the white man 'how completely you have taken possession of my body. It is slavery with a vengeance' and the media suppression of me and my advocacy of nuclear supremacy for India over the United States both reflect how completely the white man has taken possession of India. It is slavery with a vengeance. In my blog above I have described how this enslavement was done (see 'Source of Manmohan Singh's 'Deep Love' for Bush') by the British killing over ten million Indians in just the ten years after 1857. That the behavior of the enemy's Indian agents is due to the terrorization and subjugation inflicted on India by the white man does not mean such agents don't have to be eliminated; in war even soldiers who are too terrorized to fight or advance on enemy positions have to be shot on the spot. The nuclear destruction of New Delhi -- the seat of C.I.A. rule through its Indian agents -- Washington and New York, followed by the coast-to-coast destruction of the United States, will end this slavery. Satish Chandra

shafiq ashraf | 13 years ago | Reply Blood new players by all means as long as Kamran Akmal is kept away from all formats that would be a blessing for the team! Also Imran Farhat a tried and tested failure should not be part of any of the squads. What has Sarfraz Ahmad got to do to get in the side? He should never have been replaced after the Aus tour; Hopefully Akmal's wicketkeeping has destroyed us for the last time. I hope Junaid a bowler of much promise is going to be given the chance that he deserved in the world cup; what is there to debate about Azhar Ali? He should be in the team. Hammad Azam should have been given a chance ages ago, why the hell was he discarded after being in the world 20/20 squad?

Khan | 13 years ago | Reply brave decision!!!! but i think junaid should also be tested coz was in the squad and has little experience plus he was leading wicket taker in the domestic circuit previous year!!!!

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