Pakistan team to be announced tomorrow

Karachi, Feb 8: The Pakistan team for the first one-day international against Sri Lanka will be announced on Thursday evening despite being almost finalized on Monday, board officials said.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director operations, Yawar Saeed said from Lahore on Tuesday that Lt-Gen Tauqir Zia had finalized the squad and captain before he left for Singapore to attend the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting.

"We will take a final clearance from him on Wednesday before announcing the team on Thursday evening," said Yawar Saeed.

Team manager Brig (retd) Khawaja Mohammad Nasir added from Lahore that the PCB chief had briefed the advisory panel in detail regarding the composition of the squad.

"All the members of the advisory panel will talk about the team after 5:00 p.m. on Thursday," he said.

But a member of the advisory panel, Javed Miandad, said he didn't know what would be the team or who would be leading it. "I have been in Karachi for the last two days," he said at the National Stadium during Sri Lanka's first practice match.

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam said he had no clue whatsoever who is going to be the captain or the team. "I have neither been consulted nor did I attend the chairman's briefing to the advisory panel," he said from Lahore.

As things stand at present, the general has already called for changes in the middle-order while Shoaib Akhtar is not available for the opening match of the series as he has been banned by the PCB on disciplinary ground. There are question marks over the availabilities of Waqar Younis and Abdur Razzaq. Younis is getting married on Friday while Razzaq is nursing groin injury.

Out of the remaining players, some of them face the axe, according to sources in the board.

The announcement of the team on Thursday means that the team would have only one day's practice as the team would assemble on Friday for Sunday's match.

In the backdrop of poor performance in Australia, only one day practice for the team is considered totally insufficient even on the home ground. The Pakistanis played on the hard and bouncy tracks on the Australian tour while here they would be playing on slow and low bouncy pitches.

In addition to this, Pakistan last played at Test on home turf about 12 months ago when they faced Sri Lanka in an Asian Test Championship fixture at Lahore.

Because of the tight international schedule, none of the Pakistan team members got the opportunity to represent their teams in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy. This means that the wickets in the forthcoming series will be as alien to Pakistan as to Sri Lanka - thus, the home advantage is nullified.

When pressed, Brig (retd) Nasir said the delay in announcement of the team was because the advisory panel wanted to have a last look at some of the younger players in the two warm up games against Sri Lanka.