Doctor blamed over Shoaib's fitness fiasco

The manager of the Pakistan cricket team, Faqir Aizazuddin, in his 'secret report' has taken a swipe at Dr Tauseef Razzak and blamed him for Shoaib Akhtar's fitness problems.

The manager has also noted in his report, which is with Dawn despite Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) claims that the document has yet to be submitted by the manager, has highlighted that most of the frontline players lacked international standard fitness.

The manager says in his report that after the speed merchant sustained hamstring injury during the second One-day International, "Dr Tauseef put a spray on the thigh that caused burns that were eventually infected.

"Thereafter Dr Riaz (team doctor) had to treat (the wound). Shoaib played in the last One-day International without the wound having healed properly."

The manager says that after his excellent performance in the first one-dayer when he took five for 19, Shoaib persisted to play in the second game. "Dr Tauseef Razzak was taken into confidence and on player's request self-initiative as well as with the consent of his doctor, he was mutually allowed to take the field in successive matches."

Aizazuddin writes that Dr Tauseef was duly informed once Shoaib was clinically examined and it was found out that he had a muscle strain that was more than Grade I (Rectus Femoris). "He (Shoaib) was advised proper rest and treatment that included therapy, rehabilitation and functional exercises were recommended to return to fitness. It required at least three-four weeks.

"At Wellington, with less than 22 hours having passed from the time and onset of injury, and against the advice, Shoaib started to run. He completed two laps of the ground.

"Despite being pulled up by the team management, Dr Tauseef again took him (Shoaib) to the hotel gymnasium later in the day."

Aizazuddin claims that when Dr Tauseef was questioned again, he rejected the findings of the clinical tests conducted a day before.

He adds that when the matter was taken to coach Javed Miandad, the former captain maintained that since Dr Tauseef had been handling the case of Shoaib Akhtar, he should be given a free hand to treat the player as he likes.

"The following day, Shoaib came to me with severe pain. Upon inquiry, he told me that Dr Tauseef had given him a spray and the skin around that was burnt.

"When I asked Dr Tauseef he justified by saying that he attempted to do cryotherapy and that resulted in the burn."

Interestingly, the PCB bosses have been accusing the team management for destroying the career of Shoaib who had been selected after a nine-month lay-off for the tour after having played just one match.

To further make the mockery of situation, the PCB has retained Dr Tauseef amongst the panel of three doctors who are supervizing the day-to-day progress of Saeed Anwar, Abdur Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood.

Dr Tauseef had been specially sent to New Zealand chiefly as Shoaib's trainer. But in the end, the doctor, who claims to have trained basketball giants New York Knicks, not only spoiled the case of the paceman, didn't justify million of rupees that were spent on his travelling, lodging and boarding.

On the fitness of other players, Saeed Anwar, the manager writes, continues to limp though this time around he was not complaining about the pain in knee that is being caused by petallo-femoral syndrome and chondromalacia.

Of Azhar Mahmood, the manager feels that the allrounder's body in disproportionate. He feels that "his upper torso had developed more than the lower limbs and he had put on weight that caused extra pressure on the right groin. Since his left ankle was weak, his back was stiff; during the foot landing he pushed more weight to his right groin according to phenomenon of compensation."

However, the most interesting observation of Aizazuddin is about Youhana Youhana for whom he writes: "As it is known that Yousuf is HLA B27 positive, an antigen that actually makes the body stiffer than normal. He is stiff and his quadriceps/hamstrings are weak though with gradual training he will improve."

The manager says Saqlain Mushtaq's knees have gone while Arshad Khan had muscular imbalance in the shoulder.

"Mohammad Sami's Lt.Paravertebral muscles of the back are stronger than the Rt.Side and this causes the Rt.Sided strain. He has a previous history of strained intercostals," Aizazuddin writes.

While generally praising his assistant Asad Mustafa, Aizazuddin spoiled his personal file by saying that the senior players didn't trust him because of was close to Javed Miandad.

"It seems that he has a leaning towards Miandad and for this reason, the boys hardly trusted him, thinking that he was the one playing double on most of the occasions."

The report is full of praise and appreciation of Dr Nauman Niaz. For a moment, it appeared that the report has been written by the doctor himself as he has been portrayed as the man who was a tour wonder.

But, it has been cited that the cricket analyst had a clash with Wasim Akram who described his work as "a waste of resource, money and everything."