Pakistan Drop ICL Players From T20 Squad

Karachi: In a bid to avoid a face-off with the International Cricket Council (ICC), Pakistan on Tuesday dropped three Indian Cricket League players from its 30-member list of probables for this year's Twenty20 World Cup in England.

Confusion reigned supreme at PCB which dropped the trio and, at the same time, said in a statement that if ICC agrees, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved and Imran Nazir would return again replacing any three players in the provisional squad.

There, however, was no explanation how this would be possible as the participating teams have to finalise their 15-member squads by May 5 and once they have submitted their provisional squads changes can only be made if some players are unfit.

"Maybe the board has got special permission from the ICC to change their provisional squad once a ruling comes on the ICL players," one source in the board said.

The selectors have surprisingly named three players in place of Razzaq, Rana and Nazir who are of different variety.

For instance, Zulfiqar Jan is a stumper-batsman and his inclusion makes no sense since the provisional squad already has two keeper-batsmen in Kamran Akmal and Sarfaraz Ahmed.

They have also named off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and spinning all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez although Razzaq and Rana Naved are pace bowling all-rounders ideal for the English conditions. (source TOI).