The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will seek guidance from International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) while finalising Pakistan’s preliminary 30-member squad for next year’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The ICC does not want the PCB to select some players in the World Cup squad because of suspicion over their alleged involvement in spot-fixing. In fact, the spot-fixing saga has further intensified after the lawyer of the suspended Test captain Salman Butt said that he would no longer be representing his client.
The national cricket selection committee, headed by former Test opener Mohsin Hasan Khan, will meet here on Monday (today) to finalise the preliminary list that will be submitted to the ICC by November 20 to get its final clearance by November 30. It is learnt that the ICC has given ‘clear instruction’ to the PCB that it would like to have a look on the probables so that it could scrutinise them if there is a negative report against any player.
At a PCB governing council meeting on November 1, chairman Ijaz Butt informed members that the ACU would be contacted over the squad selection. The minutes of that meeting state clearly that ‘30 names are to be given by the PCB to the ACU for clearance after which the PCB will select the final squad for the World Cup.’
Pakistan’s five players are on the watch-list of the ICC including three suspended players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif. The full hearing into their spot-fixing case will take place in Doha, Qatar in January, ruling them out of the initial probables selection. The other two are Danish Kaneria and Kamran Akmal, who despite being fit are not part of the national team who are playing the ongoing Test series against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Kaneria was not given clearance by the PCB to travel to the UAE. No reason has been made public by the PCB, though his entanglement in a separate spot-fixing case for Essex earlier this year may have something to do with it, even if he was eventually cleared by Essex police. Akmal was sent a notice by the ACU earlier this year as well, but has not been selected for the current series on fitness grounds according to the PCB.
According to sources, the selectors have already finalised the list of probables but chief selector Mohsin Khan has decided to review it after getting some input from coach Waqar Younis, ODI and Test skippers Shahid Afridi and Misbahul Haq. The selection committee will also consider performance of various players who are on different assignments for Pakistan.
There has been growing speculation in Pakistan over the past week that the exclusion of certain players from the current squad and potentially from the World Cup is linked to an ICC directive to ensure the integrity of the team, and thus the game. The ICC has issued repeated denials that it has any say over what is essentially an internal selection matter. “It’s clearly not the job of the ICC to select any teams and we will not do so,” ICC’s chief executive Haroon Lorgat was quoted as saying. “It remains the responsibility of each member board, in this case the PCB, to pick its 30-man provisional squad or 15-player final squad for the World Cup 2011. However, the ICC, being a members’ organisation, is always willing to provide feedback or support to any member that seeks its assistance on any issues.”
The PCB issued a press release on Saturday insisting that it was the board’s ‘sole prerogative to select the squad’ for the World Cup and that the ICC would not be signing off on it. But they did acknowledge that all players would be reviewed ‘through its integrity committee and may seek the guidance of the ACU on any player it wishes to select. The decision as to which players will be included in the 30-man provisional squad will remain with the PCB.’
