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Inzamam invited for Test fitness trials

Tuesday, July 24, 2007


ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selection committee called up former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq for fitness trials for the Test series against South Africa. Inzamam’s fitness will be ascertained at a week-long fitness camp that will be established ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in South Africa in September.
“We have decided to invite a few players including Inzamam-ul-Haq to check their fitness for the Test series against South Africa. A week long training camp will be established to ascertain the fitness of players including former captain Inzamam,”
Salauddin Sallu, chairman PCB selection committee, told ‘The News’ on telephone from Lahore.
He said there would be no time to organise the training camp after the Twenty20 World Cup as the South Africa team is expected to reach Pakistan within a week at the conclusion of the world event.
“We have decided to arrange a one-week training camp ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup as it would be too difficult to have an idea of players’ fitness at the eleventh hour of the start of the series,”
he said.

Sallu said some of the players who have had fitness problems would be given the opportunity to prove their fitness in the camp.

Considering the fresh rethinking on the part the PCB, the chances of Inzamam’s making a comeback to the national team for Test matches now look good.
“It all depends on his fitness. If Inzamam proves his fitness, he would could be selected on the team fot series against South Africa,”
he said.

Meanwhile, the cricket selectors have called up the entire Twenty20 World Cup provisional squad — barring four playing cricket in England — for the third phase of the national camp getting under way at the National Stadium Karachi from July 27.

Four leading players, Yasir Arafat, Younis Khan, Danish Kaneria and Zulqarnain Haider who are busy playing cricket in England, however, have been exempted from the camp.
“We have decided to invite all the 26 remaining players for the third phase of the training camp starting at the National Stadium from July 27. All the 26 probables have been asked to report in Karachi on July 26 for the ten-day training camp,”
Salauddin told ‘The News’.

He said during the camp training in Karachi, the probables would mostly be involved in trial matches.
“They could play just four matches in Lahore. However, in Karachi these probables would be involved in trial matches. At least eight to ten Twenty20 matches will be played during the camp in Karachi,”
he said.

The first phase of the training camp was held in Abbottabad followed by the second phase that concluded in Lahore on Monday.
“All the players have been given three-day break and have been asked to report in Karachi on July 26,”
he said.

Probables invited for third phase: Shoaib Malik (captain), Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Yasir Hameed, Fawad Alam, Salman Butt, Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Farhat, Khurram Manzoor, Khalid Latif, Mohammd Hafeez, Misbah-ul-Haq, Naved Latif, Faisal Iqbal, Shahid Yousuf, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Irshad, Najaf Shah and Abdul Rehman.

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