 Shoaib left out of training camp
18th Jul 2008 23:01 IST
Agencies
Pakistan is due to play a Twenty20 four-nation tournament in Toronto from Aug 17 also featuring West Indies, Bangladesh and Canada.
However, PCB Chief operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi later denied that Shoaib had been left out because of the unpaid fine and said the reason for not considering Shoaib was to avoid a breakdown.
"We really don't know his fitness level at the moment, infact we are doing him a favour, by not putting him through the rigors of the camp as he might breakdown and that will not be good for us," Naghmi said.
"There was some misunderstanding the reason the board didn’t clear him was because of other reasons," one selector said.
Naghmi said the board wanted Shoaib in the camp but was not sure about his fitness level.
"We were worried he might breakdown because of the heavy workload scheduled in the camp," he said.
"We would first like to take his fitness test and determine his current fitness level and then decide if we should devise a focused plan for him at the national academy or take some other steps," he added.
The PCB official stated the camp was being held not to assess the physical fitness of players but for physical enhancement of those players who are working for the past 12 months.
"This camp is for super fit players. Shoaib’s chances of playing in the Champions Trophy would only be determined through his fitness and like I said this is not a fitness assessment camp but a fitness assessment program."
The 24 players invited for the camp are: Shoaib Malik (Capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Khalid Latif, Ahmed Shehzad, Yasir Shah, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Fawad Alam, Abdul Rehman, Mansoor Amjad, Umar Gul, Mohammad Ali, Rao Iftikhar, Sohail Khan, Abdur Rauf, Mohammad Aamer, Kamran Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Wahab Riaz, Anwar Ali. |
