Razzaq sulks after Champions Trophy snub

Karachi:

Seasoned Pakistani all-rounder Abdul Razzaq is struggling to digest his exclusion from the Champions Trophy squad and made it clear that he does not fancy following the team on television.

"It came as a huge setback to learn that I was not in the final team. Since my comeback to the national team I had been working very hard to play in this elite tournament," Razzaq said today.

The all-rounder, who resigned from the rebel Indian Cricket League in June and was immediately allowed by the cricket board to join the national team during the World Twenty20, said he had harboured an ambition of being a part of the Champions Trophy squad.

"It is a big tournament and you get a chance to prove yourself against the top teams. I was working hard to convince everyone I should be in the side," he said.

"It will be hard to sit down and watch the matches on television when I could have been out there," he said. Razzaq, however, made it clear that unlike the past when he had resigned in 2007 from international cricket and joined ICL at being dropped for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, he would not react emotionally.

"Two years back I took an emotional decision and I think I lost two good years of playing for my country. I am not going to repeat that mistake again," he said.