Lanka will not have to face Akhtar, Asif

Chris Dhambarage reporting

CRICKET: Sri Lanka will start their second and the most important stage of the International Cricket Council Champions Trophy, Mini World Cup when they take on Pakistan in their group 'B' match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Tuesday.

The interest of the match of course has been lost following the withdrawal of Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif after they had tested positive for nandrolone. The tests were carried out by the Pakistan Cricket Board three weeks ago and showed positive results for the performance-enhancing steroid.

Both Akhtar and Asif are Pakistan's best new-ball bowlers, but they now face bans of up to two years if the second test is confirmed. The possible replacements for the two players are Abdul Rehman, the left-arm spinner who toured Sri Lanka with Pakistan earlier this year, and all-rounder Yasir Arafat.

The International Cricket Council is also conducting random doping tests during the ten-nation Champions Trophy, Mini World Cup which is ranked second only to the World Cup among the limited over tournaments.

Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jaywardene said that the news is disappointing from a cricketing point of view as they were hoping to meet the challenge of Shoaib Akhtar in this crucial outing. We haven't played against Shoaib for quite some time because he was injured. We wanted to take that challenge and see how we can come about it. So from a cricketing point of view, it's bit disappointing."

Sri Lanka of course start off as the clear favourites following their three successive victories against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the West Indies in the qualifying round tournament.

The pitch is likely to be the same as they played against the West Indies in Mumbai and the spinners are certain to hold the key to their success.

Even then Sri Lanka's previous visit to this venue ended in a disappointment where India hammered a mammoth 303 for 4 from 50 overs last year with Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit an unbeaten 183 which is also the highest individual score in this ground. In fact this ground has been a happy haunting place for the batsmen with an average run rate of over five runs per over in one day internationals.

The Teams:

Pakistan - Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan (capt), Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul.

Sri Lanka - Upul Tharanga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Marvan Atapattu, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando.