Khalid Hussain on Shoaib Akhtar being dropped

Interesting comments in The News by Khalid Hussain. His feeling is that the powers that be continue to set higher standards for Shoaib Akhtar than warranted, which in the past, kept him out of the summer test series with England, that resulted in a 3-0 loss to the English. Despite concerns regarding fitness, Shoaib Akhtar performed well in the ODIs, and one could claim that this time he had more match performance after a non-injury, doping related three month lay-off. At least Khalid Hussain does feel that Shoaib has been kept out due to a direct intervention by Inzamam, who clearly casted his vote to keep Shoaib out of the squad. Whether this was truly because of fitness, or because of personal differences, only time will tell. One can only hope that Shoaib Akhtar has not been soured for good against international cricket.