ISLAMABAD
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had no place for talented left arm medium fast bowler Sohail Tanveer who was best suitable for the conditions of England due to his vast experience of playing county cricket in England and he is also a complete all-rounder which is direly needed by the team.
Sohail was strongly recommended by legendry bowler and former captain Wasim Akram and other cricketing greats during the Karachi fast bowlers camp because of his huge experience of playing county cricket in England and everybody is fully aware of the fact that he is a complete all-rounder, who can bowl at the start of the innings and more than handy in the later stages of the innings and he had the extra advantage of hitting big shots in the depth overs, but all the facts and figures had nothing to do when it comes to selection of the squad, as chief selector Iqbal Qasim is well known for tilting at a certain province because of his personal affiliation.
The PCB had earlier also dropped Sohail from the important tour of South Africa, where the green caps suffered miserably at the hands of the hosts and now the same mistake was repeated once again. Qasim was let off the hook by the board despite serious allegations were leveled against him regarding poor selection of the squad for South African tour. The PCB was forced to recall Sohail for the One-day squad, as he was already playing in the South African domestic cricket.
Sohail, who was dropped from the national side from the limited over game sighting fitness problems, was given three months contract by English county Hampshire to appear in four-day matches, pro 40 and T20 matches as well. The inside sources have confirmed to this scribe that Hampshire was offering Sohail full season contract, but Sohail declined to accept the full contract, as he had to play in the Sri Lankan League in August.
Past greats had raised eyebrows when the team was announced for the Champions Trophy and everybody was surprised that in the absence of premier fast bowler Umar Gul, Sohail should be given preference on others considering the fact he is the most experienced of all the others. Now Pakistan fast bowling department heavily rely on the shoulders of Junaid Khan as M Irfan is not fully fit and Wahab Riaz is too much expensive and he hardly takes top order wickets. Asad Ali and Ehsan Adil never played in UK before and things are looking really grim they may not get a chance this time too.
What is the purpose of taking inexperienced squad for such a prestigious event, which Pakistan had failed to win yet? It was the last chance of lifting that coveted trophy and complete their cabinet, which only missed this trophy, as green caps had won all the other major international events in the past but with this weak squad, Pakistan stands hardly any realistic chance of winning this mega event, which will be scrapped from the ICC calendar of events forever.
Sohail deserves to be the part of the Champion Trophy squad because keeping in mind the seaming conditions of England, he has ability of swinging the ball both ways so he could be the secret weapon for Pakistan had chief selector not ignored him completely.
There is no one in the PCB who can dare to raise fingers at Iqbal Qasim, as most of the players hardly performed recently, but managed to get the nod purely due to their political connections, not because of their cricketing abilities.
The chief selector and the PCB were time and again stressed to include only those players who give performances in the domestic cricket, but in fact, all the players who brilliantly performed in the domestic circuit failed to catch the eye of the chief selector and the most interesting omission from the squad is Aizaz Cheema, who took loads of wickets in the domestic cricket, but he was not considered by the selector, despite fully aware of the fact that Pakistan needs an experienced campaigner like Aizaz to get early wickets.
Pakistan is placed in a very tough group in the Champions Trophy and it will take some extra efforts to even reach the quarterfinals. Only a miracle can help the green caps, as ground reality is very much different. Most of the players hardly perform in the subcontinent pitches so how can it be possible for them to even think about showing satisfactory results in the fast and seaming tracks, where even local players find it really difficult to handle the seam bowlers.
The time will prove that the PCB selection committee committed a huge blunder by selecting not more than average squad based mainly on bowlers and batsmen and there is hardly any genuine all-rounder in the squad with the only exception of M Hafeez who is a real all-rounder while Shoaib Malik is hardly required to bowl a few overs. The limited overs cricket is all about all-rounders but the case is completely different as far as Pakistan is concerned as in this part of the world, strong personal relations matters most instead of on field performances.