Iftikhar Anjum

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani diplomat has been kidnapped in Iraq apparently by members of the Omar bin Khattab group, the foreign ministry said.

The International Cricket Council has cleared Iftikhar Anjum's name as a replacement of Shoaib Akhtar in the Pakistan Squad for the T20 World Cup, beginning next month in England.

Pakistan's performance was marvellous in the inaugural meet in South Africa and to be fair to them, they deserved to be the winners as much as India.

On one hand, where Amrinder Gill and Simi Chahal starrer ‘Chal Mera Putt 2’ is hooking the audience on the big screens, on the other hand, the makers of the ‘Chal Mera Putt’ franchise have announced the release date of the threequel. Yes, you read that right, the release date of ‘Chal Mera Putt 3’ has been unveiled; the movie will be hitting the big screens on October 1.

The makers of 'Chal Mera Putt 3' are ready to drop the trailer of the movie soon.

Former international cricketer Salman Butt was revoked from his appointment as a consultant to chief selector Wahab Riaz by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Riaz called an urgent press conference to officially withdraw Butt's name from the consultancy panel. Butt's appointment was controversial due to his past involvement in a spot-fixing incident during a 2010 Test against England at Lord's.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has added Salman Butt, the disgraced former captain, to the national selection panel. Butt, along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Iftikhar Anjum, will serve as consultants to the head selector Wahab Riaz. Their first assignment includes the upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand. Butt, Akmal, Riaz, and Anjum all played together in the Pakistan team. Butt, who served a five-year sentence for spot-fixing, has returned to cricket and is currently playing in the National T20 Championship.

With the help of Younis Khan's 110-ball 117 and Shahid Afridi's quickfire 29 Pakistan defeated India by four wickets in the second ODI at PCA stadium in Mohali.

Shoaib Akhtar is unlikely to make it to the Sri Lanka-bound Test squad despite recovering from a skin infection which led to his exclusion from the Twenty20 World Cup team.

Pakistan's iconic pacer Wasim Akram slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) decision to sack Salman Butt after 24 hours of his appointment as the consultant to Chief Selector Wahab Riaz.

At eighth, Sachin Tendulkar is the only other batsman in the top-10 while teammate Zaheer Khan, at 14th, is the highest ranked Indian bowler.

Impressive performances in the just-concluded Indo-Pak series have helped Tendulkar and Yuvraj jump up a few notches in the latest ICC ODI ranking.

Twenty-six men cricketers on Wednesday were invited to the National High-Performance Camp in Lahore on the recommendation of the men's national chief selector to train under the guidance of world-class coaches from Thursday, June 3.

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday snubbed former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq by not including him in the players' list for the new central contracts.

Pakistan coach feels T20 is an unpredictable game where even the weaker teams can gloss over their mistakes and upset stronger sides.

Dilshan blasted a career-best unbeaten 137 while Muralitharan grabbed his 500th ODI wicket as Lanka bulldozed Pakistan by 235 runs to win the series 2-1.

A resilient Sri Lanka produced a clinical display to crush Pakistan by 129 runs in the second One-dayer to level the three-match cricket series 1-1.

A confident India go into the second ODI against archrivals Pakistan in Mohali on Thursday, seeking to keep the momentum going with another convincing performance.

Having allowed Pakistan to snatch a thrilling victory and level the series, India will need to review their strategy for the crucial third cricket One-dayer on Sunday.