Pakistan to announce World Cup squad on January 11

Karachi: Pakistan's 15-member squad for the 2015 cricket World Cup will be announced on January 11 after the conclusion of a high profile one-day tournament organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

A senior official of the board told PTI that the deadline for submitting their final 15-member squads by participating nations for the World Cup was January 10th as given by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"The PCB will be organising a high profile 50-overs event from around December 28 to January 8 in which the top 75 players of the country will be distributed among five teams in the Pentangular tournament," he said.

He explained that the five competing teams would include the four provinces and a team from federally administered areas.

"A sixth team could be added from the Fata and Tribal regions but no final decision has been taken on this as yet as Khyber Pakthunkhawa province is among the participating teams in the event," he said.

The official said the 50-overs Pentangular will serve as a final platform for selecting the World Cup squad.

"They are also plans to pay a handsome appearance fees to all the participating players in the event which will be broadcast live to make it very competitive."

"Basically the national selectors will shortlist the best 75 players of the country who will than represent their provinces in the Pentangular."

The official disclosed that the Pakistan team will fly off to Australia and New Zealand around January 18.

"Beside playing a two match one-day international series in New Zealand the Pakistani players will also be playing some practice matches against domestic and club teams in both countries as part of preparations for the World Cup and to get acclimatized to the conditions and pitches in New Zealand and Australia," the official added.

"The shortlist of 30 probables for the World Cup has to be sent to the ICC in December and it will include some of the discarded seniors like Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat," he said.