Pakistani Cricket player Shoaib Akhtar to miss World Twenty20 cricket

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has been ruled out of the World Twenty20 due to a skin infection in his groin, a Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman said on Thursday.

"The medical panel of the board has examined Shoaib and he has been advised 10-12 days rest for a skin infection," the spokesman said.

"The medical panel will re-examine him in the first week of June. In the meantime the team management has requested a replacement," he said.

Fast bowler Rao Iftikhar is likely to replace Shoaib who did not attend a week-long conditioning camp held in Bhurban, a hill resort near Islamabad, last week.

"Shoaib is not fit so it was useless waiting for him to recover just before the tournament," Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam told reporters in Lahore.

"He has not trained or bowled for the last two weeks so it would have been risky taking him to the World Cup and I think Rao Iftikhar is a suitable replacement," he added.

Shoaib, 33, has played just six one-day internationals and a Twenty20 game since December 2007 because of fitness and disciplinary issues.

Pakistan are drawn in Group B of the 12-team World Twenty20 and open their campaign against hosts England on June 7.

Chorus from IPL: “We’re Not Pakistan”

As the seven Kiwi players Dan Vettori, vice-captain Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Heath Mills, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram and Scott Styris who are part of this year’s IPL mull over whether IPL Season 2 is a safe bet for them, the organisers are at pains to assure them that India is a safe venue for international cricket, that the cricket news from Pakistan does not reflect poorly on India. However mere reassurances from for IPL organizer that ‘all is well’ or ‘that we will take care of security’ are not being seen as enough.

The Lahore attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team are still fresh in everyone’s mind, and no doubt at the back of each mind are the horrific Mumbai attacks which caused the English team to leave without completing their ODI series. The there is the fact that IPL clashes with the dates of the Loksabha elections, owing to which has arisen the problem of providing adequate security for the elections as well as for the IPL.

Who is the villain of this piece? The centre for saying that they will not be able to spare security forces, the states for demanding paramilitary forces from the centre or the Board for Cricket Control in India, with the vast resources and money at its disposal? Well perhaps they all are, blame can be laid at all these doors; however one can understand the centre and the states have a more primary responsibility towards providing security for their electorate and the electoral process; the IPL is understandably a secondary priority. However one does get the feeling that the BCCI can and should do more: it is rich it is powerful and has vast resources at its disposal.

And really, is it fair to pressure the centre and the states given that they have far weightier concerns right now than the staging of a sports entertainment extravaganza which is basically means business and the bottom line for all those involved.

Given this atmosphere of uncertainty can we really claim to make the assertion that we are not Pakistan, than India is safer?

Well in a word, Yes! Because India is a stable, sovereign democracy rather than a conglomerate of warring factions, with a large chunk of the country under control of terrorist organisations. In India there is the will, the wherewithal and the ability to cope with what the security situation demands. This is essentially the difference, and when we claim that ‘We are not Pakistan’ the international cricket community ought to be listening.