Pakistan are considering playing their controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar in Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final against India after his international career appeared to be over.
Shoaib, 35, will retire after the tournament but has not played since Pakistan’s loss to New Zealand in the group stages.
Akhtar fell out of favour after an argument with wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who dropped Ross Taylor twice in one over. Taylor went on to score a match-winning century.
In the thick of it: Akhtar could still have a role to play for Pakistan at the World Cup
‘I would like to see him play but we just want to make sure he is match fit and ready for such a big game. We will test him out in the final nets,’ said captain Shahid Afridi.
Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has been urging Afridi and coach Waqar Younis to take a chance with Shoaib.
Pakistan manager Intikhab Alam went one step further by hinting that Akhtar is available to play and could start in hotly anticipated semi.
Last hurrah: Akhtar is to retire from international cricket after the tournament
‘Shoaib has been fully involved in match practice and is available for selection. He’s very much part of the squad and there is no question about his motivation or enthusiasm to play in this important game. Akhtar is ready for the semi-final.’
Meanwhile Pakistan’s interior minister has apologized to the country’s cricket team after saying he was keeping a ‘close watch’ on them ahead of Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final against India.
Rehman Malik was quoted on Monday as saying he had warned the team ‘there should be no match fixing’ and that the players were being closely monitored.
Team captain Shahid Afridi confirmed that Malik had telephoned him to apologise for his comments, which came just two days before the crunch clash with India.
Malik said Monday he was ‘sure the team has very clean members’ but that he couldn’t take any risks after the spot-fixing scandal last year which led to long-term bans for Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.
The three players were found guilty of accepting bribes in return for making sure no-balls were bowled at certain times during a test match in England last August.
Afridi said he did not want to comment further on the matter.
