No place for ICL trio in Pak T20 squad

Karachi:

Controversial pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar and Saeed Ajmal, who was reported for a suspect action, find themselves in the Pakistan squad for the Twenty20 World Cup but there was no place for the three Indian Cricket League players who were initially picked in the list of probables.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced the 15-member squad leaving out the ICL trio of Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq and Rana Naved.

"The selectors have considered only those players who were eligible to play for Pakistan. Since the board has got information of only Mohammad Yousuf resigning from the ICL, no other ICL player was considered for selection," a PCB official said.

He pointed out the board had made it clear that players would have to resign from the ICL first before being eligible to consider for national selection.

"Only Yousuf has resigned while we have no such information about Razzaq, Nazir or Naved," he said.

The three banned players were initially named in Pakistan's preliminary squad of 30 for the World Cup but then removed and put in the reserves list with the PCB taking permission from the International Cricket Council to consider the trio if they severe their ICL ties.

The board announced recently that any ICL player could be considered for national selection once he resigns from the rebel league.