Inzamam to replace Younis at Yorkshire

Inzamam-ul-Haq is set to make his county debut for Yorkshire, replacing Younis Khan who will be with the Pakistan team at the Twenty20 World Championship. The former Pakistan captain will play three four-day and as many one-day matches for the county.

"I was approached by Yorkshire county for a short stint and I have accepted it, as I see it as a great opportunity to keep my fitness for a hectic international season,"

Inzamam said.

Inzamam, who retired from ODIs after Pakistan's disastrous World Cup campaign earlier this year, was not awarded a central contract but has maintained that he still wants to play Test cricket. With the domestic season not starting before the home series against South Africa, the short county stint will provide Inzamam the perfect opportunity to prove his fitness to national selectors.

Inzamam has also been linked with a move to the Indian Cricket League. However, no confirmation of that has been received.

Pakistan's Inzamam set for rebel series

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said Monday he was set to join a multi-million-dollar breakaway cricket series in India, as officials warned it could end his Test career.

Inzamam, 37, who retired from one-day cricket in March after Pakistan's first-round exit from the World Cup, said he is in talks with the organisers of the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

The rebel series is being promoted by India's largest listed media group, Zee Telefilms.

"I was contacted by the ICL people when I was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last week and since I am not under a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) contract I see it as an opportunity,"

Inzamam said.

Inzamam was not among the 20 players who were given central contracts last month. The PCB has already announced it will not allow its contracted players to feature in the series.

Inzamam said the league would give him much-needed practice.

"There is no international cricket to get the required match practice and I think by joining this league I will get an opportunity to get that and play Test cricket whenever I get a chance,"

said Inzamam.

"I will only decide after seeing the terms and conditions. My top priority is still to get 10,000 runs in Test cricket and to play for Pakistan,"

said Inzamam.

But Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf said any player joining the league would be ruled out of future internationals.

"Our position on the breakaway Indian league is clear and firm. Since it (league) is not approved by the ICC any player joining it will not be considered for future selection,"

Ashraf said without mentioning Inzamam's name.

"No current player will be allowed to sign the league and all cricket boards of the world have this same stance."

If the burly Inzamam, currently on 8,813 Test runs, joins he will be the second big star to sign up after West Indian maestro Brian Lara.

The organisers have also targeted Test cricket's highest wicket-taker Shane Warne and a host of other international players, including New Zealand's Stephen Fleming.

The ICL, officially unveiled by Zee supremo Subhash Chandra in May this year, features six teams, each featuring four international players, two Indian stars and eight up-and-coming cricketers playing Twenty20 matches across India.

Ashraf said most of the players joining the league had either retired or have one or two years of international cricket left.

"You can judge by their signing, only those players who have retired or on the verge of retiring have signed,"

he said.

"Even those who have signed as officials like Kapil Dev and Kiran More, they too have resigned from their official posts."

The dates and venues for the series, which has not been recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) or the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), have yet to be announced.

The ICL, which carries a winner's purse of one million dollars, in many ways resembles late Australian TV mogul Kerry Packer's World Cricket Series that took on the establishment in 1977.

Packer roped in the world's top players for the rebel series after being denied official TV rights by the Australian Cricket Board for matches played in the country.

Inzamam invited for Test fitness trials

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.