Giving chance to junior said Mohsin

Pakistan's chairman of selectors,
Mohsin Khan has denied that the
Pakistan board has an agenda
against senior players. Mohsin
was responding to Pakistan
allrounder Abdul Razzaq's comments, in an earlier
interview, in which he had
accused the Pakistan Cricket
Board of indulging in conspiracy
to keep senior players out of
the national team. It's the job of the selection
committee to finalise the team,"
Mohsin told Express Tribune. "I
don't know about any lobby and
I don't feel there is any agenda
against the senior players." While senior players like Razzaq
and Shahid Afridi were not
included in Pakistan's squad for
the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe,
the selectors also chose to rest
fast bowlers Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed and Wahab Riaz, with
fringe seamers Sohail Khan,
Sohail Tanvir, Aizaz Cheema and
Junaid Khan making up the pace
attack. There was also a change
in the spin department with Abdur Rehman being rested and
Yasir Shah being given an
opportunity to make his
international debut. Reacting to the team selection,
Razzaq had told the Urdu
newspaper Jang, that "axing of
senior players is not in the
interest of Pakistan cricket".
Razzaq alleged there was a lobby within the PCB that was
misguiding the board chairman
Ijaz Butt. "It's a conspiracy
against the senior players,"
Razzaq said. "There's a lobby
which is misguiding the chairman who is working sincerely for the
promotion of the game. They
just want to secure their
position in the board and their
agenda is against the interest of
Pakistan cricket. Razzaq, who last played for
Pakistan when they were beaten
by India in the World Cup semi-
final earlier this year, said that
he had "fallen victim to the
conspiracies of this lobby". "This lobby is active in slowly
ousting all senior players from
the team and there is one main
person who is calling the shots
from behind the curtain," he said. However Mohsin dismissed the
allegations and said the senior
players "should not be
disheartened and should work on
winning their place by proving
their worth in the domestic tournaments". "The selection committee is
working on a simple policy that
any player who is doing well
should get a chance," Mohsin
said. "We just want to give a
chance to the youngsters who are our future. If there was an
agenda then we wouldn't have a
35-year old captain [Misbah-ul-
Haq] who is also a very senior
player." The squad for Zimbabwe includes
three uncapped players - top-
order batsman Rameez Raja,
legspinner Shah and seamer
Cheema. Mohsin had earlier
explained that the fresh look to the squad was an effort to
blood youngsters. "We have to
bring in young players along with
seniors so that they could be
groomed," he said.