Saturday, February 10, 2007

ICC rule out Pakistan squad plea

The International Cricket Council has rejected a second appeal from the Pakistan Cricket Board to delay the announcement of their World Cup squad.

Pakistan officials requested they name their team after they returned from their South Africa tour on 16 February, three days after the official deadline.

"The ICC said if we had injuries, we could ask for replacements from the technical committee," the PCB said.

Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Umar Gul and Mohammad Sami all have injuries.

The PCB set up a three-man medical commission because their injury situation was so serious.

Gul and Ahmed have already returned from the tour of South Africa and Mohammad Asif is the latest concern, having developed an elbow injury.

There is an ICC provision for injured players to be replaced during the World Cup, but this has to be verified by the technical committee.

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