Pakistan will announce the preliminary World Cup squad on December 30th
Pakistan’s selection panel will be meeting on December 30th, 2010 to finalize the preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup.
The selectors decided on the meeting after they were finally assured by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) that the selection committee would be given a “clear list” on some players’ availability for the preliminary squad of the World Cup scheduled to begin from
February 19th.
The committee will also be finalizing the squad for the six match One-Day series against New Zealand scheduled to commence from January 22nd, 2011.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) granted extension to PCB to announce their 30-man squad for next year’s World Cup in the subcontinent. Pakistan was supposed to announce the preliminary squad until December 19th but the selectors were in
a fix due to the unavailability of many leading players. Some players have been barred by the ICC over the ongoing spot fixing allegations while former captain Shoaib Malik, wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal and leg-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Danish-Kaneria-c1314 are under scrutiny due to
PCB’s integrity committee’s investigation.
Malik and Kamran were not included in the Twenty20 squad and Test squad for the tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 as they were declared “not clear” by the board’s integrity committee. However, Kamran had written to the ICC asking if he was under investigation. Kamran
expressed his disappointment of being left out of the squad since he had “forwarded an email from the ICC to the PCB” that cleared his name for the selection.
It is still unclear as to why the three players are being investigated as the PCB has not officially released any statement regarding the issue but they have been given the time until the end of December to submit their replies to integrity committee’s queries
in order to get clearance to play for the national team.
It can be mentioned here that some critics believe that they were being left out as the three players were marred by match fixing allegations in some way or the other or are being investigated over their “possible roles” in the spot-fixing sham that rocked
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and world cricket in the summer of 2010.
A source in the PCB said that the three players will be submitting the required documents by next week along with bank statements and the selection panel will then “reach a decision by December 30th.”
The source also conceded that the integrity committee will be meeting with the three players on the same day and the Board will be making sure that they announce the preliminary squad on the same day as well.
A spokesman of the PCB also said that the Board is also concerned about the fact that almost all the participating nations in the 2011 World Cup have announced their preliminary squads.
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