KARACHI (AFP)
Pakistan left out Wasim Akram from their squad of 14 for the second Asian Test Championship final against Sri Lanka, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Tuesday.

"We have to preserve Akram for one-day matches where he is more effective and want him to play a leading role in the 2003 World Cup," PCB Chairman, Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia, told AFP.

"The one-off Test does not mean Akram's career is over, we have a lot of cricket from April 2002 to World Cup 2003," he said.

Akram, who recorded two hat-tricks in the first Asian Test Championship and led Pakistan to the title in 1999, has been struggling for fitness. He missed Pakistan's two-match Test series against the West Indians in Sharjah earlier this month after injuring his hamstring in Bangladesh in January. He played in only one of the three one-day games against the West Indies, taking just one wicket.

Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who took three wickets in two Tests against West Indies in Sharjah, was also left out. Akram left for India on Monday night to appear in a television show.

His removal hints that his Test career may be over, a day after South Africa's Allan Donald announced his retirement from Test cricket over persistent injury problems.

However, Pakistan captain Waqar Younis disagreed. "Let Akram attain full fitness and he will be back in the team," he said.

Akram has 414 wickets in 104 Tests and 447 wickets in 324 one-day games.

The Championship, which decides the best Test team of Asia, lost its sheen after India pulled out in September last year, protesting Pakistani policy toward Indian-administered Kashmir. India and Pakistan last met on the cricket field during the Asia Cup in Dhaka in June two years ago.

Their Under-19 teams, however, met in the league game in the recently concluded Junior World Cup in New Zealand.

Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka thrashed Bangladesh by an innings margin in the Asian Championship last year and mutually agreed to abandon the meaningless league game to directly play the final, which is in Lahore from March 6 to 10.

Sri Lanka, having already announced their squad, will arrive on March 3.

Pakistan squad Waqar Younis (capt), Inzamam-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Taufeeq Umar, Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Sami, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mohammad Zahid, Faisal Iqbal.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd