Malik retained as captain for another year

LAHORE—Shoaib Malik has been retained as Pakistan’s captain until December 2008 after the PCB extended his current appointment by another year. Malik was made captain in April, following Pakistan’s dismal World Cup performance, originally until December this year.
“Malik has shown enough promise to warrant more time as captain,” Nasim Ashraf, the board’s chairman, said. “He has led the team well and all the players are comfortable with him. “We are looking to have continuity in the captaincy as this is instrumental in the improvement of the team. Malik is young and learning and the perfect choice.”
The appointment of a vice-captain, however, will be made on a series- to-series basis. Younis Khan, deputy for the tour of India, is the third vice-captain during Malik’s tenure; Mohammad Asif was appointed for the Abu Dhabi ODI series against Sri Lanka, while Salman Butt replaced him for the ICC World Twenty20 and the home series against South Africa.
Asif, meanwhile, might be sent to Australia for treatment on the elbow injury which forced him out of the ongoing ODI series in India.
He also missed four out of the five ODIs against South Africa last month, and the status and extent of his injury remains uncertain. “We have two reports on his [Asif’s] injury. One specialist says he requires surgery, another feels he can recover without surgery. We have sent his reports to a top specialist in Australia and we are awaiting his response,” Ashraf said.
Pakistan are due to play three Tests against India after the ODIs, before taking on Zimbabwe for a five-match ODI series at home in January.
“ Altogether six teams, a mixture of local and international players, will be featuring in the event which we intend to stage in a trend setting manner “,he asserted.
PCB Chairman said it would be made mandatory to include four local U21 players in the teams giving an ample chance to young players to exploit their talent.
Answering a question he said the PPL league will not be having any negative impact due to security concerns as International Cricket Council (ICC) has full confidence in Pakistan for holding cricket events.
“ Our high profile cricket activities are going as per schedule and our coming assignments the visit of Zimbabwe and Australia will go ahead and we have endeavoured to provide top security to the visiting teams and we will be maintaining the same protocol in future “,he said. He said PCB is laying special emphasis on promoting cricket as grassroots level and it has undertaken a strategic game development plan to help achieve this target.
PCB Chief and Chief Executive Officer,ABN AMRO,Naved A Khan signed a sponsorship deal under which the bank will provide Rs 22 million for sponsoring domestic season. “ It is a milestone step which will speed up our efforts in terms of making our first class cricket a much competitive competition eventually helping us in bridging the gap between the first class and international cricket “,he said. Dr Nasim Ashraf said it will be the first time that first class domestic matches will be having live coverage for the 60 days.—Agencies