The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ‘Akmal not ruled out for remaining matches’

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Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
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Sport - Cricket

‘Akmal not ruled out for remaining matches’

Karachi: The Pakistan team management on Tuesday said it had not ruled out struggling wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal for the remaining two one-dayers in the five-match series against India, despite his finger injury.

Pakistan team manager Talat Ali said since there was a rest period of three days before the fourth ODI in Gwalior, Akmal had enough time to recover.

“He had some practice in the nets on Monday and is also getting treatment for his injury. So we are not ruling him out completely for the last two games,” Talat said.

He said the tour-selection-committee had also called up Sarfraz Ahmed as a back-up keeper. “We will have choice if Kamran is not able to make a proper recovery,” he said.

Verbal exchange

The team manager also sought to play down the verbal duel between Shahid Afridi and Gautam Gambhir during the third one-dayer in Kanpur.

“It is not such a big issue. Neither has the match referee talked to us about it nor have we bothered to make an issue out of it. It happened in the heat of the moment and is over,” he said.

He said though the media had highlighted the incident but in reality the relations between the two teams was cordial. “On the field, both teams want to win and such things do get heated up at times. But we have told our players not to cross the line and violate the spirit of the game,” he said. — PTI

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