da luck： Mohammad Yousuf has made himself unavailable for Pakistan’s ChampionsTrophy campaign in September, thus further depleting Pakistan’s 30-manlist of probables for the tournament
Cricinfo staff14-Jul-2008
Mohammad Yousuf doesn’t want to play during the holy month of Ramadan © AFP
Mohammad Yousuf has made himself unavailable for Pakistan’s ChampionsTrophy campaign in September, thus further depleting Pakistan’s 30-manlist of probables for the tournament.The announcement of the squad has already been delayed twice so far,initially because of disagreement between the board and selectors oversome names on the list, as well as uncertainty over Shoaib Akhtar’seligibility.The names were supposed to be made public today, but the revelation thatMohammad Asif, one of the names in the squad, was the player who testedpositive in a dope test at the IPL, meant another delay. The names will,the board now says, be announced tomorrow.But Yousuf will not be among them. Cricinfo has learnt that Yousuf will beunavailable because the tournament will be played during the month ofRamadan. “Yousuf has asked to be excused from the Champions Trophy as itwill be held during Ramadan and he does not want to be playing during thatmonth,” a source close to the selection committee told Cricinfo. “We haverespected that decision and not picked him in the squad.”Though Yousuf had made the request to the board a while back, finalconfirmation only came today. Mohammad Hafeez is likely to take his placein the list of probables. Incidentally, Yousuf played during Ramadan last year – against South Africa – and the year before in the Champions Trophy in India.His decision will come as a blow to a squad already likely to be missing Asif. Uncertainty remains over the inclusion in the final 15 of Shoaib, and possibly Umar Gul as well, who is yet to recover from an injury sustained during the Asia Cup.Yousuf has been Pakistan’s middle-order rock over the last 12 months,scoring over 1100 runs at an average of nearly 70, with three 100s andeight 50s. And he hasn’t just milked minnows such as Bangladesh orZimbabwe; in 14 matches against India and South Africa, he averages over60, with six fifties and a hundred.As Yousuf Youhana, he was one of the few Christians to have played forPakistan and the only one to have captained the side. But he publiclyannounced his conversion to Islam in September 2005 and has since been adevout, practicing Muslim. Ramadan is among the holiest months in theIslamic calendar, where Muslims are expected to fast between sunrise andsunset. Pakistan players have on occasion played while fasting in the pastand it is popularly thought that some were fasting during the 1992 WorldCup.