According to well informed sources, Sohail was withdrawn from the sixes cricket team on Wednesday. He has been replaced by Lahore's hard-hitting batsman Raja Arshad, who didn't play in any of the PCB organised tournaments last season.
Although an official announcement was awaited, it was confirmed that the PCB authorities got possession of the air ticket which was delivered to Aamir Sohail on Tuesday.
The Hong Kong sixes team now is: Wasim Akram, Basit Ali, Naeem Ashraf, Zahoor Elahi, Sajid Ali, Asif Mujtaba and Raja Arshad. The team leaves for Hong Kong on Thursday.
Zaheer Abbas, acting chairman of selectors in the absence of Salim Altaf, expressed his surprise over the two decisions. He said he has no knowledge about this development.
``Neither I have been informed officially nor my views were taken on the withdrawal of Aamir Sohail and the inclusion of Raja Arshad,'' Zaheer said when reached for comments late Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, the national selection committee will meet on Thursday but not in Karachi. It has been fixed for Lahore for reasons not known. To hold the meeting in Karachi on Thursday would have been a better decision because the players, managers, chief selector (Salim Altaf) and a selector (Zaheer Abbas) would be here.
The selectors will be finalising a 14-member team for the three one-day internationals against India. The games will be held at Hyderabad (Sept 28), Karachi (Sept 30) and Lahore (Oct 2).
According to insiders, a decision to retain Ramiz Raja has also been taken by the cricket authorities despite requests for the change in leadership.
However, sources said Ramiz Raja will be made captain only for the three one-day internationals. The decision has been taken because the officials are hoping that Wasim Akram would regain fitness for the home series against South Africa and thus, will take over the charge from Raja.
``The officials are not prepared to change leadership in every series. They want that Raja will only be released from his duties when Wasim Akram declares himself fit and returns to the national outfit,'' sources told Dawn on condition of anonymity.
Regarding the availability of Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmad, sources said Younis had told the authorities that he would return from England on Sept 23 and will himself contact them. ``So far we haven't received any call from him (Waqar Younis).''
About Mushtaq, the officials were unaware about his whereabouts. ``We have absolutely no clue where he (Mushtaq) is. The last thing we heard from him was that he has a knee injury.''
In another development, it has been hinted that Nadeem Khan, PIA's slow bowler, might be preferred over Mohammad Husain. Husain, the left-arm spinner, toured Canada but was not given a chance in any of the five games. Nadeem is being considered because of his better fielding and reliable batting lower down.