ICC yet to receive PCB request about replacement

While the Pakistan team management in London confirmed that a replacement for the injured Yasir Arafat has been sought in the form of Abdul Razzaq, the ICC technical committee has yet to receive any formal requests from the PCB.

“There have been reports of the PCB seeking a replacement for the injured Arafat but we’ve had no official word from them as yet,” Steve Elworthy, the ICC World Twenty20 tournament director and member of the ICC technical committee, confirmed to Dawn.

“The process can be started as soon as a request is received and, if done electronically, can take up to 12 hours.”

Considering Pakistan play their first Super Eights match on Friday, the delay comes as a surprise, puzzling especially given that Pakistan’s coach Intikhab Alam confirmed that a request has already been sent to the PCB.

“Arafat is definitely out of the tournament and we have asked the PCB to send Razzaq as replacement,” Intikhab had told Dawn.

“Losing Arafat is obviously a big blow to us as his attitude towards training and performing for Pakistan was terrific but it’s an unfortunate thing that can happen to anyone, and at any time.”

Arafat will be leaving the squad today and will rejoin his county Sussex that he is representing in the on-going county season as their overseas player.

Razzaq, an ex-ICL player, was originally named by the PCB in the 30-man squad for the tournament in May but his name was quickly scratched off due to ICC’s objections to ICL-linked players at that time.

Given the fact that he terminated his contract with the ICL recently, and was part of the recently-concluded domestic Twenty20 tournament in Pakistan, Razzaq seemed an obvious like-for-like replacement given Arafat’s withdrawal despite having not played international cricket for just over two years.

“Razzaq is a talented and professional cricketer who shone in ICL as well as Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20,” Intikhab said.

“I’m sure his performance will not be hampered by the fact that he hasn’t played international cricket for a long time and we look forward to having him in the squad.”

Razzaq, given the PCB sends in the replacement request in time, can feature for Pakistan against Sri Lanka as early as Friday, and can become the first ex-ICL player to return to international cricket.”

© Faras Ghani 2009.
Published in DAWN newspaper June 11, 2009