Pakistan to miss top 5 players in ICC World Cup 2011

Tags: ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Pakistan, Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif

Published on: Nov 30, 2010

Karachi: Pakistan will miss the services of its top five players, including the suspended trio of Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer, in the upcoming cricket World Cup.

Karachi: Pakistan will miss the services of its top five players, including the suspended trio of Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer, in the upcoming cricket World Cup.

According to the sources, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has advised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to not include players under suspicion in its preliminary 30-member squad, which has to be finalised by December 19.

The other two players, who are to likely to miss the bus are stumper Kamran Akmal and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria. "The advice is not to select these two while the suspended trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer are also out of contention for the World Cup," one source told reporters.

The source said the PCB had tried to get clearance for selecting Akmal but did not get a favorable response from the sport`s world governing body. "There is fear in the cricket hierarchy that with doubts still existing over the conduct of Akmal, Kaneria and the suspended trio also under a spot-fixing cloud, these five should not be selected in the World Cup preliminary squad," the source said.

Sources also said that there was also some doubt over former captain Shoaib Malik, who has scored three successive hundreds in the ongoing domestic season. "There is 50-50 chance of Malik making the preliminary squad but 95 percent chance that Akmal and Kaneria are out of contention," the source said.

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