Pakistan plagued by injuries (16 February 1999)

16 February 1999

Pakistan plagued by injuries

Hasan Masood in Calcutta

The first match of the Asian Test Championship, a world first, between arch rivals India and Pakistan will get underway here at the Eden Gardens this morning.

Both the India and Pakistan teams had more than three-hour long practice sessions simultaneously yesterday morning under tight security arrangements.

The Pakistan team, which arrived here late Sunday night, are going through injury problems. Leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed has already returned home with a back injury. His replacement off-spinner Arshad Khan, who played in the recently-concluded Dhaka Premier League for Surja Tarun, has already arrived here but his chance of playing in the first eleven looks very slim. Middle-order Salim Malik is also doubtful because of his fitness problem and to add more salt to the wound, middle-order batsman

Inzamamul Haq suffered a severe neck injury last night when the bus, carrying the team from airport to their hotel, fell into a small ditch.

Inzamam, the tallest member of the team, was taken to a local clinic last night and did not appear in practice.

However, Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram said he expected Inzamam to be fit before the match.

"If Inzi does not play, middle-order Wajahatullah Wasti would make his debut," said Wasim after the nets.

About Malik, Wasim said he was fully fit for the game. But Malik said his chances of playing was fifty-fifty.

About the pitch, Wasim looked quite happy. "This is for the first time I have seen grass on a wicket in India and I hope things remain the same tomorrow (Tuesday) morning", he said yesterday.

"This wicket looks pretty good. We might include a third seamer. We have two choices in Azhar Mahmood and Shoeb Akhter. Any one of them might be included in the team", Wasim said, adding that the team would be finalised before the match.

"We are here to win the match. So we are not thinking for the bonus points. I have played county cricket so I am aware of what is going to happen", said Wasim while replying to a query about the format.

He added that the morale of the team was quite high.

"I am very happy to come here. Eden is one of the greatest venues for Test cricket and I believe it will be a good match," said Wasim.

When the skipper was praising India, Pakistan manager Shaharyar Khan was blasting the Indian press yesterday for publishing cooked stories.

"Some of the newspapers are writing negative reports about the unity of Pakistan team and these are all rubbish. What I can tell you is we have excellent team spirit in the squad and none can break that," he said.

In his introductory speech at the press conference, Shaharyar claimed that these reports were made only to demoralise his team.

Meanwhile, hosts India declared their squad for the Test. Rishikesh Kanitkar and Sunil Joshi have been excluded from the Indian squad.

A total of 1,10,000 spectators are expected to see the match as all the tickets for the first day have been sold out.

Source :: The Bangladesh Daily Star (http://www.dailystarnews.com)

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