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Pakistan would announce their 30-man provisional squad for this year’s World Cup in the West Indies early next week, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said on Friday.

“We are more or less clear on what sort of pool to announce for the World Cup but would announce the provisional squad after a final round of discussion among the selection committee and the national team management,” Dr Ahsan Malik, PCB’s Director Communications, told ‘The News’ in a telephonic conversation from Islamabad.

The competing World Cup nations have to name their preliminary squad for the quadrennial spectacle by January 13.

Some of the 16 teams including the defending champions Australia have already announced their preliminary squad for the event to be held in the Caribbean islands from March 13 to April 28.

Pakistan also could have named their pool of 30 players by now but currently their chief selector is out of the country while a member of the national selection committee is hospitalised because of a heart problem.

Chief selector Wasim Bari is yet to return home after performing Hajj while another former Test cricketer Iqbal Qasim, a selection committee member, is recovering after suffering from a heart attack recently.

The Pakistan team is currently touring South Africa where they would play a warm-up game in Kimberly getting underway from today (Saturday).

Dr Malik said that the selection committee has already taken input on the preliminary squad from Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and would finalise the list early next week.

“The list would be announced within a couple of days after the chief selector returns home,” he said. Bari is expected to return over the weekend. Pakistan are unlikely to make any surprise additions to a list of 25 players who attended a brief conditioning camp in Lahore late last month in preparation for the tour of South Africa.

The selection committee is expected to retain almost all those 25 players and would just five more to the list to make the preliminary squad for the World Cup.

The players invited for the conditioning camp were: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Yasir Hameed, Faisal Iqbal, Shoaib Malik, Asim Kamal, Salman Butt, Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Yasir Arafat, Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Mohammad Sami, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Shabbir Ahmed, Shahid Nazir, Danish Kaneria, Abdul Rehman, Zulqarnain Haider (reserved wicket-keeper).

Some of the players who are likely to be added in the World Cup preliminary squad are medium pacers Mohammad Khalil and Samiullah Niazi, promising all-rounder Fawad Alam and hard-hitting opener Imran Niazi.

Fawad, who was the best player of the Twenty20 Cup last month, is the only new face who is expected to make the list.

“The selectors might have a few discussions among each other and may also discuss the issue with Woolmer and Inzamam before naming the squad,” said Malik.

According to the International Cricket Council (ICC), deadline for submission of final 14-member squads for the World Cup is February 13, a month before the tournament’s opening game between Pakistan and the West Indies on March 13 in Jamaica.
Source:The News