Shoaib back home after attack on Asif

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan sent Shoaib Akhtar home from the Twenty20 championships in South Africa Friday after the paceman hit teammate Mohammad Asif with a cricket bat, plunging the troubled team into fresh chaos. Akhtar, the world's fastest bowler, said he was sorry for striking new ball partner Asif after they had a blazing row during a practice session in Johannesburg on Thursday, but insisted he was provoked.
"It was reported to us by Mohammad Asif that Shoaib Akhtar had hit him on his leg with a cricket bat and abused him," Pakistan team manager Talat Ali said. "After this, the team management investigated the incident and after recording the statements of both Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar, decided to send Shoaib back to Pakistan immediately," he added.
PCB chief executive officer Shafqat Naghmi said the board fully backed the decision. "Shoaib Akhtar will be returning on the first available flight," he told newsmen. The team management had the sent the PCB a request for a replacement, while Asif would be fit to play, the PCB said. Officials said young pacer Najaf Shah was being considered as the stand-in for Akhtar.
Akhtar compared his behaviour to that of French footballing icon Zinedine Zidane, who stunned the world when he head-butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the final of the World Cup in Germany last year. "I was provoked and I will brief the media about the whole affair on Saturday evening when I return home. I have never hit anyone like that and I am very sorry," he added.
"Zidane did it in a World Cup final and I am also a human being. What happened was not good but I am also a human being and what can happen to a human being in a fit of anger, a random act, is unbelievable," he added. The maverick Akhtar's exit from the tournament is the first major challenge for new coach Geoff Lawson, the former Australian fast bowler who arrived here in August to coach the often fractious Pakistani team.
Pakistan are due to open the Twenty20 World Cup against Scotland at Durban on September 12 before facing arch-rivals India at the same venue two days later. The 32-year-old Akhtar, who has taken 169 wickets in his 43 Tests, has been dogged by controversy and injury since making his debut for Pakistan 10 years ago.
He was already on six weeks' probation and had a 5,000-dollar fine suspended after being cleared last month of leaving a training camp in Karachi without informing manager Ali. Last year he and Asif were involved in a doping scandal when they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. Akhtar was banned for two years and Asif for one year, but the bans were overturned.
Akhtar missed the World Cup in the Caribbean due to a knee injury and his comeback was delayed after Pakistan's two one-day matches against Scotland and India were washed out last month. He has played just four one-day matches and two Tests in the last 19 months. The Pakistani team has also been mired in controversy.
New coach Lawson is the replacement for Bob Woolmer, the former England batsman found dead in his hotel room in Jamaica after Pakistan crashed out of the World Cup in a first round loss to minnows Ireland earlier this year. Police initially thought Woolmer had been murdered but later said his death was from natural causes.
In August 2006 Pakistan forfeited the Oval Test match against England, the first time a team had done so in Test history. The match was declared forfeit by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove when the Pakistan players stayed in their dressing room after the tea interval, in protest at a five-run penalty for ball tampering. Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was later cleared of ball tampering but found guilty of disrepute in relation to the post-tea no-show at the Oval. He was banned for four one-day matches.—Agencies