Pakistan Cricket Board delay declaring Asia T20, World T20 squads

Pakistan Cricket Board delay declaring Asia T20, World T20 squads

Karachi: The national selectors have delayed announcement of the national squad for the Asia T20 and World T20 after some sterling performances in the ongoing Pakistan Super League in Dubai. A source told PTI that chief selector Haroon Rasheed had sent a 15-member squad to the chairman of the cricket board for final approval but then asked for some more time to revise the squad. “Haroon has held consultations with head coach Waqar Younis and captain Shahid Afridi over the selection of the squad and apparently the biggest issues are the selection of Ahmed Shehzad, Khurram Manzoor, Kamran Akmal, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Irfan, Rumman Raees and uncapped left arm spinners, Muhammad Nawaz and Muhammad Asghar,” a source said.

Shehzad, who was certain to be axed from the T20 squad before the PSL began last Thursday, has hit form in the franchise based tournament for Quetta gladiators and has left captain Afridi asking the selectors to reconsider him. A source said the selectors had already decided to replace Shehzad with Khurram Manzoor who has been scoring prolifically in T20 and ODI matches. “But now the selectors are pondering whether to pick both of them,” the source said.

Earlier, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had taken up the issue of cancellation of bilateral series with India last December, as per an MOU signed between the two boards in 2014 to play six bilateral series, with the ICC. An official in the board told PTI that chairman Shaharyar Khan had brought up the issue at the recent ICC board meeting in Dubai and stressed the need for boards to respect bilateral agreements. “Shaharyar did take up this issue at the ICC meeting and pointed out that India had not played Pakistan in a bilateral series since 2007 and it had caused loss of millions of dollars to the PCB in estimated revenues,” the official said