'Six-million man' axed again

Pakistan cricket selectors left out eternally unfit "six-million Rupee man" Shoaib Akhtar from the 16-man squad for the three-match one-day internationals series against New Zealand starting here next Wednesday.

But in a comedy of errors, the selectors named Shoaib captain of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) XI which will test the muscles of New Zealand in a one-day warm-up match at the National Stadium on Sunday.

What is mind boggling in the scenario is that the man who was not considered fit to play limited overs games, has been not only included in the practice one-dayer but has been assigned to lead the team.

If the selectors had any fitness doubts against Shoaib, they should have removed them by naming him in New Zealand's threedayer at Rawalpindi between Sept 27 and 29 where he would have bowled long spells and stayed in the field for more than half the match.

In addition to this, the selectors will have another excellent opportunity to scrutinize Shoaib's fitness if he appears for KRL against Sui Gas in the Patron's Trophy first-class tournament opener at the KRL ground between Sept 21 and 24.

But with the selectors now accountable to the PCB after being appointed on handsome salaries, bloopers like these will continue to happen. Unfortunately, there will be no cross checks because the officials at Lahore secretariat, who approve the squads, consider themselves more knowledgeable than the people who are in the thick of the sport.

It is for the second time in six weeks that Shoaib has failed to make it to the team despite being invited to attend a training camp. The 26-year-old, who has spent more time on the massage table rather than in the field since bursting into international scene in 1997-98 and on whom the PCB has spent over Rs six million on medical bills, had earlier missed selection for the Test against Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship at Multan last month.

The injury-prone bowler has played just 15 Tests since making his debut against the West Indies at Rawalpindi. He has appeared in 40 odd one-day internationals.

The selectors also left out Imran Nazir and Faisal Iqbal but named left-handed opener Taufiq Umer, paceman Shabbir Ahmad and uncapped Naved Latif and Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan. Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi are also back in the side after completing their assignments for Surrey and Leicestershire in the English County Championships.

The chairman of selectors Wasim Bari has made it a habit of refusing to defend his teams. And this time too it was no exception when he said: "All I can say is that the team has been unanimously picked by the selectors as well as the captain and coach. The skipper and coach will now be all in all while finalizing their playing lineups."

Taufiq Umer's preference over Imran Nazir is somewhat surprising as the former has played just one Test in which he scored a century while the latter was recently considered for one-dayers only.

Imran, probably the best fielder in the Pakistan team, was specially flown along with Shahid Afridi for the trination one-day series in England where he was not played in a single match.

While Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan is tipped to be an allrounder for future, Naved Latif is living on the royalty of his 394 in a Quaid-i-Azam Trophy match for Sargodha against Gujranwala last season.

The seriousness of the match can be judged from the fact that Naved later opened the bowling in Gujranwala's second innings and was clobbered for five sixes in six balls while conceding 32 runs. Since then, Naved hasn't performed anything of note.

Inzamam-ul-Haq was included in the side though he will miss the opening two one-day internationals as he is under suspension.

Squad: Saeed Anwar, Taufiq Umer, Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Naved Latif, Rashid Latif (wicketkeeper), Azhar Mahmood, Abdur Razzaq, Rana Naveed-ul- Hasan, Waqar Younis (captain), Wasim Akram, Shabbir Ahmad, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shoaib Malik.