Akmal, Kaneria uncertain about World Cup berths

Karachi:

Despite meeting some PCB officials, senior Pakistani players Kamran Akmal and Danish Kaneria are still uncertain about their places in the preliminary squad for next year's World Cup.

To make matters worse Akmal and Shoaib Malik were also refused permission by the board to go and play league cricket in Bangladesh.

"We had asked for permission as we had a couple of offers from Bangladesh but the board told us to give more importance to the domestic season," Akmal said.

The wicketkeeper, along with Kaneria, visited the PCB headquarters to seek clarification on why they were being ignored for national selection.

Kaneria met board chairman Ijaz Butt, while Akmal also had a meeting with a senior official, but both came out disappointed.

Akmal, Malik and Kaneria have all been dropped from the national team and were not also picked for the tour of New Zealand.

They also appear to have been ruled out by the national selectors for the World Cup preliminary list despite performing well in domestic cricket.

Although nothing has been made official, reports suggest that the three are being ignored by the board as the ICC has not given them clearance to play for the national team.

"I wanted to know what is happening and why the board didn't allow me to go to Dubai for the Test series against South Africa. We have been told to just wait," Kaneria said.

Akmal said that he wanted to know the reason as cricket was his bread and butter and his ambition is to play for Pakistan again.