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Injury-prone fast bowler, Shoaib Akhtar, has been given a clean bill of health and has been described as in excellent physical condition.

"He was in rehabilitation period for eight weeks and is out of it for four weeks. He is now bowling as fast as he used to do before injuries. A lot of work has been done on rebuilding of his body," Dr Tauseef Razzaq, who is supervizing the physical fitness of eight other cricketers, said from Lahore.

Shoaib has been out of competitive cricket for the last nine months with a series of injuries including back strain, damaged ribs and shoulder.

But the doctor said he would not like Shoaib to be exposed in the domestic circuit although he would hand over the fast bowler to the board on Jan 26.

"The main concern of the board on Shoaib is his fitness. The more he stays with me, the better. He is being looked after in accordance with modern art of physical training and I would like to have him more so that I can work further on his endurance, stamina and fitness."

Shoaib is not the only one player but Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmad, Saeed Anwar, Abdur Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana and Saqlain Mushtaq were also undergoing physical fitness course.

The players have shown tremendous improvement and in another four weeks will be at par with the requirements of fitness at international standard, he said.

Inzamam-ul-Haq, who has been severely criticized for his lack of fitness, is one of the few missing names from the training camp.

Dr Tauseef said he has requested the chairman and director of the PCB to exempt the players under his charge from the domestic matches because he would be able to make them fully fit by the first week of next month.

He opined that players fitness and not the skills have been criticized globally. "I mean, the priority of the board is the fitness of the players. The preparation camp will be a waste because there the batsmen will only try to put bat to the ball and the bowlers will turn their arms over.

According to the fresh PCB directives, all the leading players are instructed to play one first-class match from the initial two while the training camp, which was first cancelled, will begin from Jan 20.

© Dawn