By IANS
Johannesburg : The Initernational Cricket Council has allowed Pakistan to replace Shoaib Akhtar with 22-year-old Rawalpindi all-rounder Sohail Tanvir for the Twenty20 World Championships starting here Tuesday.
The change became necessary after Shoaib was sent home from South Africa following his dressing-room scuffle with fellow medium-pacer Mohammad Asif, who was hit with a bat and suffered a bruised thigh.
Pakistan’s first match of the tournament is against Scotland in Durban Sep 12.
The ICC’s technical committee approved Tanvir as a replacement for Shoaib on the basis of “exceptional circumstances”.
A statement released by the ICC said: “The incident and disciplinary action taken by the Pakistan board is not related to the matches in the event. The tournament has not commenced and there is a precedent to support the replacement.”
Tanvir, who bowls left-arm medium-fast, played only two matches for the Rawalpindi Rams in Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 tournament last season. He has scored 84 runs and taken no wickets in the 10 Twenty20 games he has played in the last three years.
But he impressed national selectors in a series of training camps and practice matches over the summer and was said to be close to a place in the original squad.