Imran, Akram, Miandad pull out of PCB workshop

Lahore, Nov 16 (UNI) The Pakistan Cricket Board's planned workshop of former players will have to go ahead without star ex-skippers Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram after the trio pulled out of the event citing prior commitments.

The workshop is being conducted to get the views of Pakistan's former players on the team's preparations for next year's World Cup and Akram, Miandad Imran are not the only star cricketers to have pulled out.

Amir Sohail, Moin Khan and Zaheer Abbas have also made themselves unavailable for the workshop, which commences tomorrow.

The PCB had initially invited 27 former cricketers and journalists to attend the workshop but most of the star players have pulled out of the event.

''Imran rang up the PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf to express his regrets,'' PCB Director Operations Saleem Altaf told 'The Dawn'.

''I have some family engagements to attend to as well as a few TV commitments to honour in Karachi. Therefore, I am unable to leave the city,'' Miandad, meanwhile told the same newspaper.

''I received the invitation from the PCB on Tuesday after the national press had raised objections about my name being missing from the list of invitees,'' he added, referring to the PCB gaffe in which his name was not included in the initial list of invitees.

Miandad clarified that his decision was not based on the incident and neither did he have any differences with Imran Khan as reported earlier.

''Both of us have the same goal - to give maximum benefits to the cricketers. I think with strong departmental teams, players have better future but there is no harm if competitive cricket at regional or city level is also run side by side,'' he said.

Miandad, however, promised to convey his feedback to Pakistan President and PCB patron-in-chief Pervez Musharraf.

Meanahile, Wasim Akram has cited his commentary commitments with a TV channel as the reason for his withdrawl.

The PCB, however, remains hopeful of getting a good response for the planned event.

''Views of the participants will be taken into consideration and on the basis of a consensus, PCB will devise its future strategies,'' a PCB spokesman reportedly said.

Among those who will attend the workshop are, Former Test opener and PCB chief executive Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad, Intikhab Alam, Waqar Younis, Wasim Bari and Mohammad Ilyas.

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