Saeed Anwar to lead Pakistan against Sri Lanka

Karachi, Feb 10: Left-handed opener Saeed Anwar on Thursday was named as Pakistan captain for the home series against Sri Lanka after Wasim Akram surrendered the job "in an effort to concentrate more on his cricket and domestic commitments".

Wasim is just 17 wickets short of becoming the fourth bowler in Test history to claim 400 wickets. He already has a record 409 one-day scalps under his cap.

Besides, Wasim has already informed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that he will not be available for Pakistan's return tour to Sri Lanka in June-July this year. Wasim has signed a contract with England television, Channel 4, as their expert commentator for the England series against Zimbabwe and West Indies.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) not only appointed a new captain for the series, it also made drastic changes in the squad for Sunday's first one-day international against Sri Lanka.

In the wake of Pakistan team's horrendous performance in Australia where it lost three Tests and six one-day internationals, the cricket administrators dropped all the five batsmen viz Ijaz Ahmad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Wasim, Wajahatullah Wasti and Shahid Afridi.

Paceman Waqar Younis was not considered for selection because of his marriage while allrounder Azhar Mahmood was left out because of injury.

Cricket officials named five uncapped players and recalled openers Aamir Sohail and Imran Nazir and paceman Shahid Nazir. Of the uncapped players, Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Arafat, Zahid Saeed represented Pakistan in the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka last month.

The other two rookies include 25-year-old Younis Khan of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and 21-year-old Imran Abbas of Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP). Both are middle-order batsmen.

Younis struck a brilliant 68 not out off 58 balls against Sri Lanka on Thursday after having come into the exhibition match with more than 1,100 runs in Quaid-i-Azam Trophy against his name.

Imran Abbas showed his potential while scoring 79 against Sri Lanka at the National Stadium on Tuesday. In the same match, Faisal Iqbal had chipped in with 31 while Yasir Arafat had contributed 25 off 13 balls besides taking one wickets for 24 runs off six overs. Zahid Saeed was adjudged best bowler of the Youth World Cup.

While the PCB director operations, Yawar Saeed, claimed Wasim had voluntarily stepped down, sources in the headquarters of cricket in Pakistan confirmed that the allrounder was asked to relinquish captaincy.

"Wasim was told on Monday that the cricket board wanted a change in captaincy because the players were finding its difficult to adjust with him because he was losing his temper too often," sources remarked.

A day before Wasim met chairman of the PCB Lt-Gen Tauqir Zia in Lahore, seven members of the team that toured Australia had also called on the general.

Wasim, a veteran of 91 Tests and 291 one-dayers, captained Pakistan in 25 Tests in four spans between February 1993 and January 2000.

Interestingly, Pakistan lost all the four Test series' against Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe when Wasim played as a player under Ramiz Raja, Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail at home between 1995 and 1999.

But newly appointed captain Saeed Anwar was optimistic that Wasim Akram will give his best. "I have delivered my best to every captain. So, I expect the same response from all the senior players.

"Wasim is a great player and he still has a lot to contribute to Pakistan cricket. Not only he has 400 Test wickets in sight, he has the job to tutor young fast bowlers."

Saeed, who has played 44 Tests scoring 3,366 runs and 197 limited overs internationals scoring 7,001 runs, regains the most prestigious job in Pakistan sports in one of the most difficult scenarios.

He has been given a young and inexperienced team in the home series in the background of Pakistan's pathetic performance in Australia. To complicate matters, Sri Lanka have been playing exquisite cricket since the World Cup having beaten Australia inhome Test and triangular series final. They also outplayed Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.

But the changes in the squad were inevitable. The enigmatic Ijaz Ahmad, though was the top scorer in Australia, was never consistent as his record suggests that he played 75 off his 246 matches at the pivotal one-down position averaging little under 29. He aggregated 6,430 runs in his career at 32. Inzamam was badly out of form scoring just 96 in Australia from nine innings.

While Mohammad Wasim failed to score in both the matches he played in Australia, Wajahatullah Wasti may find himself unlucky when he earned just one opportunity in Down Under in which he scored 8.

The squad is:

Saeed Anwar (captain), Aamir Sohail, Imran Nazir, Younis Khan, Imran Abbas, Yousuf Youhana, Faisal Iqbal, Moin Khan, Wasim Akram, Yasir Arafat, Abdur Razzaq, Shahid Nazir, Zahid Saeed, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shoaib Malik.