THE extraordinary merry-go-round that is Pakistan cricket gathered pace yesterday when eight of its leading players, including Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram, were dropped from the squad for a triangular one-day international tournament in Sharjah next month.

A day after Waqar Younis was sacked as captain, Shoaib, the fastest bowler in the world, and Wasim, the first bowler to take 500 wickets in one-day internationals, also paid the price for Pakistan’s abject performance in failing to reach the Super Six stage of the World Cup.

Saeed Anwar and Inzamam-ul-Haq, their most experienced batsmen, Saqlain Mushtaq, one of the world’s best spinners, and Shahid Afridi and Azhar Mahmood, the all-rounders, are the others to make way for new blood to take on South Africa and Sri Lanka between April 1 and 10.

Rashid Latif, the new captain, Abdul Razzaq, Salim Elahi, Younis Khan, Yousuf Youhana, Mohammad Sami and Taufiq Umar are the only survivors from the World Cup squad, but Aamir Sohail, the chief selector, said that only Waqar and Afridi had been “permanently dropped”. The remainder had been advised to rest.

“We will have to swallow the bitter pill of playing without big names if we want to give young players a chance in international cricket,” Aamir said. “We have to think about the future and we have to be patient. The results won’t come overnight.

“During the World Cup, we saw that our senior players looked tired. Saqlain looked completely off colour. That’s why we have given him a rest.”

Umar Gul, a young fast bowler from Peshawar, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, an all-rounder, and Mohammad Hafeez, an opening batsman, are the only members of the squad who have yet to play international cricket. Some of the others have limited experience but Aamir said that the squad has been chosen “on merit”.

Rashid, who had planned to quit after the World Cup but has now become Pakistan’s seventh captain in five years, said: “We went to the World Cup with superstars but came back empty-handed. Maybe we will go to Sharjah and come back with new superstars.”