R Reed: Qadir not in Pakistan team to tour Australia (10 Oct 95)

Title: Qadir Beaten for a Turn Author: Ron Reed Source: Herald- Sun (October 10, 1995)

For afficionados of the noble art of leg-spin bowling, the prospect of Shane Warne and Abdul Qadir on opposite sides this summer was too good to be true.

And sadly, that`s the case - apparently for the same reason that usually dictates who`s in or who`s out of any Pakistani team. Office politics.

There have been rumors for months that the rubber-wristed Qadir, now 40, would make a comeback for Pakistan in Australia ths summer, but they were as good as dashed on two fronts yesterday.

In Islamabad, the Pakistani selectors named a squad for this week`s one-day series against Sri Lanka and the West Indies, the final warm-up before leaving for Australia the weekend after next.

Qadir, who took 236 wickets in his 67 Tests, wasn`t in it.

>From Perth, organiser Keith Slater admitted defeat in his attempts to get Qadir to play on the same side as Warne in the Lilac Hill festival match that will open the Pakistanis` tour on October 26.

Slater, who said arranging travel from Lahore had proved too difficult, said Qadir had told him he had been asked to be on standby for the national team.

"He is still playing first-class cricket and he told me he is still the best and fittest bowler they`ve got, but that he won`t be making himself available because he doesn`t get on with some of the others in the team," Slater said.

It`s such a laughably common story in Pakistani cricket - and rarely more so than when the eccentric Qadir used to be involved - that it`s a wonder they ever manage to field a side at all.

Former Pakistani captail Imran Khan also refused an invitation to play in the festival match, leaving Warne, Merv Hughes, Matthew Elliott and the 47-year-old Dennis Lillee as the guest players.

They will be joined by WA`s Damien Martyn, Justin Langer, Tom Moody, Mark Lavender, Adam Gilchrist, Brendon Julian and new left-hand batsman Simon Catich who will be 12th man.