Test opener omitted despite a prolific domestic season

Farhat slams selectors again

Cricinfo staff

August 22, 2007

After signing up with ICL, Imran Farhat's involvement with Pakistan earlier this year could be his last © AFP

Imran Farhat launched another stinging attack against Pakistan's selectors, claiming that their bias towards him compelled him to opt out of a central contract and join the Indian Cricket League (ICL) instead.

Farhat last represented Pakistan during the Test series in South Africa; he has since been overlooked not only for the subsequent ODI series, but also the World Cup and the tours to Abu Dhabi and Scotland. He was also recently omitted from the squad for the Twenty20 World Championship after being handed a central contract.

"Instead of being appreciated, I was put in the list of Future Players Programme that caused me great mental torture. And as if this wasn't humiliating enough, the selectors called me for the Twenty20 camp in Karachi, only to drop me to give another shock," Farhat told Dawn.

"Despite being the top scorer at the Patron's Trophy one-day cup and in the Pentangular Cup, the selectors have been considering me as a Test player. They don't know I am also a record-holder of the national Twenty20 championship, having scored 115 in an innings of the second edition of the event in Karachi."

Farhat scored over 500 runs in last year's Pentangular Cup, four-day matches played on a league basis, with a top-score of 184 and 242 runs at a strike-rate of over 100 in the five Patron's Cup matches he took part in.

Farhat's ODI record, however, has never been convincing, with only six half-centuries and a solitary century to show from 33 matches. In his last 15 ODIs, he has scored 337 runs at an average of 24.07, with only two half-centuries.

© Cricinfo

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Players/Umpires

Imran Farhat

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Pakistan