Pakistan pace man Wahab dropped for Bangladesh tour

Pakistan paceman Wahab Riaz has been unnoticed for the squad touring Bangladesh after his name was mention in the spot-fixing trial in London at the start of November.

Chief selector Mohammad Illyas said Wahab had been drop for the tour after consultations between the selectors and team management.

"We have picked the best probable team," Illyas told a news meeting in Lahore on Monday.

Wahab was part of the teams that played a test series next to Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates last month but was then drop for the one-day series and sent home soon after his name was mention in the trial.

During the trial, an in secret reporter told the jury that Pakistani player agent Mazhar Majeed had told him he had several cricketers working for him and mention the names of Wahab and not needed wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.

At the Southwark Crown Court on Nov. 1, Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were handed jail terms ranging from six to 30 months for taking bribe to fix parts of a test match during Pakistan's tour to England last year.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was disinclined to comment on Wahab's keeping out but sources within the body long-established to Reuters that the bowler was sideline because his name was mention during the trial.

"The PCB has determined not to select any players whose names were linked to the spot-fixing trial," one source, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Wahab's keeping out is a blow to the team after a string of good performances in domestic and international cricket since making his test first appearance at the Oval last year.

His exclusion forced selectors to make one change to the test squad that hit Sri Lanka, replacing Wahab with young pace man Mohammad Talha.

The selectors have retained the same one-day squad participates in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka in the Gulf.

"Bangladesh is always a formidable side at home and we didn't want to take risks. As it is the team is on a winning impetus and we want that to continue," Illyas added.

Pakistan will play two tests, three one-dayers and a Twenty20 international in Bangladesh from Nov. 26.

Test squad:

Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Shoaib Malik, Adnan Akmal, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Talha, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul.

One-day international squad:

Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal,, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema, Sohail Tanvir, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Umar Gul.

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PCB forms board to look for coach

Former captain Zaheer Abbas has been named in a three-man commission to look for a new Pakistan coach.

The unpredicted decision by Waqar Younis to resign from the coaching post took everyone in the organization by surprise. The former speedster has done wonderful work in uplifting Pakistan cricket and it came as a shock to all when he decided to take a break.

Waqar will give up the job after Pakistan's tour of Zimbabwe, next month. Waqar had exposed that the decision is based on personal and medical reasons and he will make a return and serve Pakistan cricket again. In the interim, the search for a replacement is on.

The Pakistan Cricket Board, in the group, has also built-in its development manager, Intikhab Alam, and ex-Test wicketkeeper, Naushad Ali, while former Test opening batsman and now observer, Ramiz Raja, will assist the committee.

The PCB also revealed on Monday that the board will "look for coaches, both from within and outside Pakistan", and will start its work next week.

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Pakistan hand Ijaz Ahmed coaching job

Pakistan on Thursday selected former middle-order batsman Ijaz Ahmed as supporter coach for the national team's future tour to Zimbabwe in a bid to help the batsmen.

"On ask for of the team management Ahmed is selected assistant coach. He will travel with the Pakistan team on the tour to Zimbabwe," said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a statement.

Pakistan play a practice game on August 28, before attractive the field for a Test, three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 in Zimbabwe.

The 42-year-old Ahmed has supposedly been hired to iron out problems in the batting line-up, the team's main area of anxiety in recent years.

Ahmed, who carved a name as an violent middle-order batsman, represent Pakistan in 60 Tests and 251 one-day internationals, but was locked up two years ago for issuing false cheques to the tune of 11 million rupees ($126,714 by the current exchange rate).

Ahmed is also on the staff of Pakistan's national cricket conservatory in Lahore.

Pakistan's head coach is former paceman Waqar Younis, while Misbah-ul-Haq has been selected captain for all three forms on the tour of Zimbabwe.

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"Recommendation not obligatory on PCB"

Haroon Lorgat on Wednesday said that it was not fixed for the PCB to realize the recommendation and comments made by ICC's Special Task Force on Pakistan cricket.

In an interview, Lorgat said from Dubai that the task force report was meant to propose to the PCB ways and means to get better their cricket structure.

"It is not required on the PCB to implement all recommendation or explanation of the task force. But we are confident that they will study it and their governing body would see the importance of implementing some, if not all, recommendation and explanation of the task force," Lorgat said.

Lorgat was dialogue after the PCB sent a strong worded response to the task force report in which they discarded most of the recommendation and observations. The PCB also said that the report restricted factual errors and superfluous.

Lorgat said he had not seen the PCB reply as yet but everyone had to realize that the purpose was to help Pakistan cricket.

"As far as the truthful errors are worried, yes, there might be some but at the same time, we had shown a draft copy of the account to the chief operating officer of the Board, Subhan Ahmad, to check it out before we gave it final shape and submit it," the ICC official said.

Asked about the PCB defense of its system of having the Pakistani President concerned in cricket affairs and his power to employ the Board Chairman and governing board members, Lorgat said that the ICC decision-making council had already passed a legitimate amendment that made it mandatory for Boards to prohibit political interference and government involvement in their matters.

"From what we saw, the PCB supports the constitutional alteration and we are hopeful they will implement the recommendation on this issue," he said.

He noted no opposition was raise at any point during the ICC meeting on this issue by Pakistan.

Lorgat also made it clear that when the task force was twisted, Pakistan was taken into self-assurance and the main purpose at that time was to ensure that Pakistan cricket was not isolated and got sufficient contact at the top level with the exception of hosting foreign teams at home.

"With due course of time, the mandate of the task force was delayed and the PCB was taken into self-confidence on this.

"The pleasing feature is that, at the moment, the Pakistan team is one of the busiest in international cricket and it is playing a lot of cricket which was our main anxiety in 2009," Lorgat signed off.

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PCB panic over security to Afghan team

The Pakistan Cricket Board has asked the government to give sufficient security for the visiting Afghanistan side.

After a television channel showed the Afghanistan team travelling in a bus in Rawalpindi with only a police mobile escort it with three officers on board, the PCB has requested that security be enlarged for the visiting team.

In March 2009, militants attack the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore and killed six Pakistani policemen and a van driver besides hurtful five Lankan players. The attack led to Pakistan becoming a remote cricket nation as far as teams coming to play in the country is worried.

The Afghanistan team is the first foreign team to visit Pakistan since the 2009 event which was blamed on insufficient security preparations by the police and administration.

But a board official said it was in constant touch with the law enforcement agencies and government over security being provided to the Afghan players. "We are in stroke with the government over the security arrangements. We are coordinating with them but the liability of providing the security is with the police and other security agencies," he said.

"Because of the existing situation in the country where militants are target security agencies and police as part of their activist activities the law enforcement agencies don't want to be famous in their presence around the Afghanistan team by having uniformed policemen to guard the players," the official claimed.

"But we have been certain there are sufficient plain clothed officers as long as security cover to the Afghan players," he added. Board Chairman Ijaz Butt has used the one-day series between Afghanistan and Pakistan 'A' to make a keen appeal to the cricket world to support Pakistan by sending teams to the country.

Butt has said the board was capable of organising international matches even in the current situation with the help of the government.

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Dilshan won't go to Pakistan

Cardiff, (AFP): Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said Wednesday he would not play cricket in Pakistan again after an invite for his side to return to the anxious nation, two years after they were attacked there, was discarded.

Dilshan was on the Sri Lanka team bus shot at by militant in Lahore in March 2009 during an attack which kill eight people and wounded seven membrs of the tour party.

Asked if he would ever go back to Pakistan with Sri Lanka, Dilshan - most important the team in the first Test against England that starts here on Thursday - told reporters: "I don't think so. It was a bad understanding for me as a cricketer in Pakistan.

"As a player, I don't want to go through the same knowledge in the future. My personal view, I don't want to go back to play cricket there."

The Pakistan Cricket Board announced at the weekend they had invited Sri Lanka to play three Tests, five one-day internationals and one Twenty20 game in a series proposed for October.

However, the invite was twisted down by Sri Lanka Cricket chairman D.S. de Silva, who said Tuesday: "The situation, with regards to security, doesn’t allow us to play matches there. Even the ICC (International Cricket Council) has not given us security permission."

Since the attack, no major nation has tour Pakistan, forcing the country to play 'home' series in the United Arab Emirates, England and New Zealand. On Monday, Afghanistan becomes the first foreign squad to arrive in Pakistan following the attack on the Sri Lankan players. The Afghans will take on a second-string Pakistani national team in a three-match series.

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PCB stress inquiry beside Raza

The Pakistan Cricket Board believed Akram Raza's case necessary a full-scale query even as the off-spinner plead blamelessness in the illegal gambling case.

A senior official tell PTI that the board will have to assessment whether to employ Raza to the umpires' panel for the approaching Pakistan 'A' and Afghanistan series in view of the betting case next to him.

Raza, a former off-break bowler who played nine Tests and 49 One-day Internationals, was under arrest on Saturday with six others after a police raid on a plaza in Gulberg area for running a gambling row.

Police have exciting seven people, counting Raza for taking against the law bets on the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

Raza, who is at the moment a first-class umpire, got bail on Monday but will have to come into view before a court next week in link with the case.

Sultan Rana, who head the domestic cricket section in the PCB, said that it was too early to say whether Raza was blameless or not.

"Definitely the case warrants an investigation and we will decide on that soon. It is a serious thing because of the sensitivities occupied in fixing issues," he said.

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Zulqarnain Haider to come back to Pakistan

 

Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider is reportedly prepare to return to Pakistan and has said he is hopeful to recommence his playing career. Haider, who fled to London last year after claim he had established death threats from match-fixers, recommended he had been at peace by a meeting with Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik in London last week, and would withdraw his request for asylum in Britain. 

"After meeting with [the] interior minister and getting pledge of me and my family's safety in Pakistan, I have resolute to return home on April 24," Haider told from London. "After getting this assurance there is no need for me to carry on with my refuge application, which I will withdraw." 

Haider, 24, went absent from the Pakistan team's hotel in Dubai on the sunrise of the fifth and final ODI next to South Africa on November 8, saying he had received death threats from anonymous people seeking to draw him into match-fixing. 

In the consequences of his flight, Haider announced his international departure and his contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) were suspended. A fact-finding committee subsequently set-up by the PCB to look into the issue failed to find any clear motives at the back his actions. A PCB official has said that there has been no speak to between the Board and Haider, and their only knowledge of his come back to Pakistan has come throughout media reports.

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