KARACHI / LAHORE: Pakistan could be
forced to play the first of two back-to-back Twenty20 Internationals in
Zimbabwe without a regular wicket-keeper after it emerged on Tuesday
that Sarfraz Ahmed’s departure has been inordinately delayed.
The 26-year-old wicket-keeper/batsman
received an unexpected call-up into the national limited-overs squads
last Friday after Umar Akmal was withdrawn from the tour after being
reported unfit during the ongoing Caribbean Premier League T20
competition.
The 23-year-old Umar, youngest of the
three Akmal brothers, suffered a back injury while playing for the
Barbados Tridents and was immediately asked by the Pakistan Cricket
Board (PCB) to return home. But media reports, quoting a relative of the
player, later said that he had suffered an epileptic fit during the
flight to Jamaica.
But it seemed at the time of filing this
report that Sarfraz could be missing both the Twenty Internationals as
well as the three One-day Internationals, according to reliable sources
who claimed that he was still waiting for the travel plans to be
finalised by the PCB’s logistics department despite arriving in Lahore
well ahead of the departing flight to Zimbabwe.
The sources further said that Sarfraz,
who played a significant role in Pakistan’s Asia Cup triumph with an
unbeaten 46 in the nail-biting final against Bangladesh at Dhaka in
March 2012, has been instructed to wait until Wednesday afternoon to
know whether he would be participating in the series at all. Moreover,
visitors intending to visit Zimbabwe are issued visa upon arrival in the
African country.
Five days have already passed since
Sarfraz, who has thus far played just two Twenty20 Internationals and 23
One-day Internationals in addition to four Test appearances since his
making his Pakistan debut in a one-dayer against India at Jaipur in
November 2007, received that SOS call from the cricket board and now the
cricketer is left groping in the dark. If Sarfraz were to figure in
Friday’s opening Twenty20 fixture, he should be on the long flight to
Harare in the early hours of Wednesday.
There is no direct flight available from
any city in Pakistan to the Zimbabwean capital and normally whenever
the Pakistan side fly to that nation, they take the connecting flight
from Johannesburg after first landing in Dubai. The entire journey to
the designated destination takes nearly two days.
According to the sources, if Sarfraz is
unable to make the flight, the PCB would be flying out Test
wicket-keeper Adnan Akmal instead for the limited-overs series. Adnan
has not yet played any Twenty20 Internationals and has participated in
just five ODIs between September 2011 and February 2012.
Meanwhile, Umar Akmal practised at the
National Cricket Academy in Lahore on Tuesday in a bid to prove that he
is fit enough to take some part on the Zimbabwe tour and the make-shift
wicket-keeper/batsman claimed that he was not faced with any fatal
disease.
Talking to reporters after reaching here
from the West Indies via New York, the dashing batsman said that the
reports of his illness had caused panic among his family members.
“I am quite fit and ready to play and
have never been faced with any fatal disease,” maintained Umar, who soon
after arriving in the city went to the NCA for practice to prove that
he was fit even after a long journey.
“My family is worried about the medical
reports coming from the West Indies about my health while I am quite
alright and no one from my family is suffering from any fatal disease,”
he further said.
The PCB doctor said that according to
the initial examination of Umar, who was later on asked by the board to
have an MRI, there was no element of any fatal disease.
However, the PCB doctor said that final
report of the MRI, coming on Wednesday, would help in taking a final
decision in this regard.
The PCB doctor further said that Umar would also go through a fitness test to prove his fitness.
Although Umar’s medical report from the
West Indies might represent a serious condition, it is not the first
time he has been faced with such a situation.
He recovered in hours from such an
unconscious condition during the 2010 World T20 as well as during the
Super Sixes tournament in Hong Kong.
The PCB seemed eager to know well-being
of the talented batsman but failed to properly help the player since it
didn’t assign any official to receive him at the airport to help him in
handling the media.
There are also reports that Umar had been instructed by the PCB not to talk to the media.