'I'll be supremely fit'

Still smarting from his omission for the tour of the West Indies, Shoaib Akhtar has promised to utilise his stint with Worcestershire to come back fitter and better than ever. In an exclusive interview with Cricinfo, Shoaib insisted that innuendo over his fitness was unfair, and rubbished rumours that his weight had ballooned while he was recovering from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the series in India.

Shoaib, who sat out Pakistan's last tour of the West Indies with an injury, was desperately disappointed at missing out again, but insisted that he had done all he could to convince the selectors. "I was saying that I'm fit and keen, but I have no clue what Grant Compton (the PCB physio) told the Board in his report," he said. "But it's history now. The team's been selected and they've gone. I'm gearing up now for my county games, the Super Series and England's tour of Pakistan. I'll be supremely fit for those games."

As for the barbs about his weight, Shoaib's response was a laugh. "A lot of these people don't have a clue about the gym, they've never even been inside one," he said. "Anyone will tell you how necessary gym-work and cardio (cardio-vascular exercises) are these days. I weigh 84 kg now. In Australia, it was 83. So I've put on one kg, and that's muscle. During the off-season, you have to work on your muscles to prevent wastage. I have a six-pack on my belly right now, so I don't know how people can call me fat."

The fact remains though that he has rarely managed to make it to the final match of a series, leave alone finish one, and when asked whether he was worried that such absenteeism would be an integral part of his story, he was quickly on the defensive. "I have completed a few series. If you look at it, McGrath didn't play that full series and Gillespie didn't either [both did, with only Michael Kasprowicz making way in Sydney]. They were rested. You can't play a full series these days. You have to use your fast bowlers sensibly."

Read the full text in this week's Wednesday Interview.