54 women probables named for BD series, World Cups: Shirin Javed defends her appointment

LAHORE, Nov 28: Fifty-four women will attend the national cricket camp to commence here from Dec 12 in order to prepare the Pakistan women’s cricket team for a tri-nation series in Bangladesh along with the forthcoming World Cup.

The newly-appointed PCB Women’s Wing chairperson Shirin Javed said at a press conference here that the wing had picked 25 probables after holding open trials throughout the country. The remaining probables had already been selected by the previous setup.

Shirin said that as there had been a lot of complains about the selection, the wing decided to hold open trials to provide a fair chance to the players.

The chairperson also observed that the gathering of probables at Karachi was rather less despite the wing’s having invited all the players. She was also pleasantly surprised to find so many girls appearing for the Quetta trials. Lahore and Islamabad too held open trials.

Eleven probables were picked from Lahore and six from Karachi. Similarly, three from Quetta and five from the Islamabad region impressed the selectors.

The wing was assisted in different cities by Aaqib Javed, Ijaz Ahmad and Shoaib Mohammad. Former Test cricketer Imtiaz Ahmad had nothing to do with the selection this time.

“I have always respected Imtiaz Ahmad as a cricketing legend but his performance as an administrator was not at par,” Shirin said.

“I happen to be the first to have brought Imtiaz to the women’s wing back in 1990s but we are relying more on our national selectors now,” she said.

The probables are to be short listed to 20 after eight days of training camp, on Dec 20, from which a final 16-member Pakistan team would be selected to play in the tri-series in Bangladesh, which involves Sri Lanka along with the hosts.

Pakistan will be heading to Australia on March 1 for the World Cup. After the mega event, Pakistan will also be touring some European countries, before they play the first Women’s Twenty-20 World Cup to be held in England in June.

Shirin also said that they would be retaining the women’s team coach Umer Rashid for now.

Shirin, who happens to be a close relative of PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, while clarifying that her appointment was not the result of nepotism, showed the press a letter signed by former Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi, according to which she was appointed vice chairman of the wing in 2007.

Replying to a question, Shirin said that she was not willing to blame the wing’s previous management (headed by Mira Phailbus) and said that she had no problems with PCB’s ordering an audit of their accounts.

The federal auditor-general has already started the auditing of PCB’s accounts.

Probables selected through open trials:

LAHORE REGION:

Batswomen: Komal Feroze, Mehrunnisa (Lahore), Sukhan Faiz (Multan).

Fast bowlers: Sania Khan (Multan), Rabia Muzaffar (Sialkot).

Spinner: Nazia Nazir (Sialkot).

Wicketkeepers: Nazia Sadiq, Bushra Ashraf (Lahore), Saima Jamil (Sialkot).

All-rounders: Ayesha Qazi, Sumaira Sajid (Lahore).

KARACHI REGION:

Medium-fast: Masooma Junaid (Karachi).

Spinner: Shumaila Qureshi (Karachi).

Wicketkeeper: Armaan Khan (Karachi).