Pakistan's senior players Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq are unlikely
to find places even among the probables for the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup
to be held in South Africa in September.
The national selection committee is due to submit a list of 30 players by July
7 and sources confirmed that Yousuf and Razzaq were not in the run to be named
among the probables.
"The feeling among the selectors and the Cricket Board
is that slowly there is a acute need to inject fresh blood into the one-day
side and the consensus is that this should start with the Twenty20 World Cup,"
one source said.
He said the selectors and the Board had decided to identify
players who could be available for the 2011 World Cup to be co-hosted by Pakistan,
India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
"The selection of all-rounder, Fawad Alam for the
series in Abu Dhabi in April and than for the two one-day games in Glasgow
is part of this process," the source said.
Yousuf, who set a new Test record by scoring over 1700 runs
last year, and Razzaq have been an integral part of Pakistan's one-day and Test
teams in the last eight years.
An indication of the Board's new planning came when both were overlooked for
the captaincy and vice captaincy and the Board appointed youngsters Shoaib Malik
and Salman Butt to these prestigious positions at the cost
of some heartburning among a few players.
Pakistan is not an avid supporter of having a Twenty20 World
Cup and recently PCB Chairman Naseem Ashraf expressed surprise over the ICC
decision to start organising the tournament even though many of the Test playing
nations still didn't have a domestic Twenty20 tournament in place.
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