The Pakistan Cricket Board, on Thursday, announced the national squads for next month’s tour of Sri Lanka. Three separate teams were announced for all three formats of the game, with Mohammad Hafeez being appointed captain for the Twenty20 squad in place of Misbah-ul-Haq.

Besides the change at the helm of the T20 squad, a few surprise recalls were handed out to players previously discarded from the national side. These included Mohammad Sami, Imran Farhat, Tanvir Ahmed, Faisal Iqbal, Sohail Tanvir, Khalid Latif and Yasir Arafat.

Some uncapped players have also been selected for the different parts of the tour, including Haris Sohail, Raza Hasan, Shakeel Ansar, Rahat Ali, Ayub Dogar and Afaq Raheem.

The selection has been met with a varying reaction from the cricket fans. While some have hailed the replacement of Misbah by Hafeez, others have said Shahid Afridi should have been given the reins. The opportunities provided to domestic performers have been welcomed, especially in the Twenty20 squad where players like Shakeel Ansar and Haris Sohail stood out in recent tournaments.

The disciplinary hearing into corruption charges against former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria and English county player Mervyn Westfield has been adjourned until the week of June 18, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Friday.

The hearing was scheduled for May 21 but has been delayed at the request of Kaneria’s lawyers, the ECB said in a statement.

Kaneria was summoned to the ECB hearing after being named in a London court in February as a go-between in a spot-fixing scandal that resulted in a four-month prison sentence for his former Essex team mate Westfield.

The bowler, who took 261 wickets in 61 tests, has denied all the charges.

Kaneria was arrested in 2010 along with Westfield on suspicion of spot-fixing during an Essex match against Durham in 2009 before being released without charge.

His Essex contract was terminated in 2010 and he has not played for Pakistan since the scandal came to light.

Westfield was the first English county cricketer to be convicted in court for spot-fixing.

Cricket is all about experience, not age Mohammad Ayub Dogar, who has been selected in the national Test team for Pakistan’s tour to Sri Lanka said on Sunday that experience matters more than age in cricket.

Dogar, who is 32 years of age, said if it was about age the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selectors would have given him a chance several years ago.

“In cricket there are some things you learn only through experience which comes with the passage of time,” he told PakPassion.net.

Dogar pointed out that Pakistan’s one-day and Test team skipper Misbah-ul-Haq and former captain Younis Khan have proven through their performances that age is not a barrier.

“There are numerous other examples like Mohammad Hafeez, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene. There are lots of players who are well over 30 and are performing very well with consistency,” he said.

He further said he was thankful to the PCB for giving him an opportunity and he will try his best not to disappoint them.

Dogar said that touring Sri Lanka in June and July will certainly provide challenging playing conditions.

“Playing in Pakistan in domestic cricket provides you with challenging conditions, so hopefully we should be able to cope with the conditions there,” he said.

He added that coaches Dav Whatmore and Julien Fountain have brought a fresh approach to Pakistan cricket.

“They told the selectors to look at who is performing, assessed their ability and then decided who should be selected,” he said.

Malaysia beat three-time champions Pakistan in the final to clinch their first junior Asia Cup title in 20 years in Malacca, Malaysia.

Faisal Saari and Mohd Sayyim Yusof scored for Malaysia while the Greenshirts pulled one back through Mohammad Irfan.

Malaysia were awarded a penalty in the first thirty seconds of the match through which they scored their opening goal. The hosts then doubled their lead in the 17th minute when Yusof scored. At half-time, Malaysia were in control of the game with a scoreline of 2-0.

Pakistan put up a much more improved performance in the second half and Mohammad Irfan scored in the 42nd minute. However, they were wasteful with their chances and could not equalise within the remaining time.

Previously in the tournament, Pakistan finished top of their group after beating China, Sri Lanka and drawing with India after which they defeated South Korea in the semi-finals. India finished third in the tournament after beating South Korea 2-1.

Mexican police said Sunday they had found the dumped and decapitated bodies of 49 people, probably killed in drug violence, whose hands had been cut off to prevent fingerprint identification.

The mutilated corpses were discovered in black plastic bags close to the northern city of Monterrey, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the US border.

Jorge Domene, a public safety spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon, said the victims comprised 43 men and six women and the bodies had been split into their four limbs and stacked up at the roadside.

The find came just days after police discovered the dismembered, decapitated bodies of 18 people in two abandoned vehicles in western Mexico, in what appeared to be a revenge killing involving powerful drug gangs.

Just a few days earlier, there were 23 killings in the city of Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state which borders the United States, comprising nine people found hanging from a bridge and 14 others that had been decapitated.

Adrian de la Garza, a prosecutor in Nuevo Leon state, said some of the bodies in Sunday’s shocking find were naked and the hands had been cut off, though forensic experts were collecting DNA samples.

A note was found at the scene in which the Zetas — a gang set up by ex-commandos that deserted in the 1990s — claimed responsibility.

Initial investigations indicate that the victims were killed up to 48 hours ago in a different location, having likely been transported by truck to where they were found.

Suspected drug gang violence has risen across the country this month, with scores of deaths attributed to massacres and clashes with security forces.

Authorities have blamed much of the deadly violence on battles between the Zetas and groups allied to the Sinaloa Federation of Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The state of Veracruz has become a battleground between the Zetas and Guzman’s Sinaloa grouping, and journalists have also been targeted.

Last week, the dismembered bodies of three photographers and a news company employee were found, wrapped in plastic bags, in a canal in the metropolitan area of Veracruz, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico.

Several days earlier the Veracruz state correspondent of the national weekly news magazine Proceso was found strangled in her home.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out war against the nation’s drug gangs on taking office in December 2006.

Chairman of the Governing Board of Thar Coal Project Dr Samar Mubarikmand on Sunday said four more coal wells had been set on fire and as a result gas production from these would begin from next week, Geo News reported.

“A flame will be lit from gas as emission begins from these wells towards the end of this month,” he said while talking exclusively to Geo News, brushing aside reports of the project being a failure.

Dr. Samar said that through underground gasification technology, electricity can be generated at Rs3 to 4 per unit while diesel can be produced at $40 per barrel. The average rate of power production through furnace oil comes to Rs20 per megawatt, he added.

He said as much as 50,000 MW electricity per day could be generated through Thar Coal reserves.

Dr. Samar Mubarakmand said a number of foreign companies including those of China had expressed interest to invest in Thar Coal Project.

Dr. Samar Mubarakmand is a nuclear scientist and a Member of Science and Technology, Planning Commission.

For last many years he with a team of dedicated scientists is trying to use coal reservoirs at Thar, Sindh, considered to be one of the largest reservoirs in the world.

The 35th meeting of Tri Partite Commission was held between military authorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF, today.

The Commission provides a forum to raise and hold deliberations on contentious issues and facilitates settlement.

According to an ISPR statement, talks focused on border control measures, and mechanisms put in place to avoid untoward incidents on both sides of Pak-Afghan Border.

Pakistan Army contingent was led by COAS, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. General John Allen, Commander ISAF and General Sher Muhammad Karimi, Chief of General Staff Afghan National Army headed their respective delegations.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) refused to let seven cricketers play in a Twenty20 match in Toronto slated for May 12.

Skipper Misbah ul Haq, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Muhammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Hammad Azam and UmarGul had to play from Asia 11 team.

However, PCB refused to send the players to Canada.

According to the players, they had told the Director International Operations of PCB Intikhab Alam regarding the tour.

Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer of PCB Subhan Ali said that players had not sought formal permission from the PCB.

The US boxer Lamont Peterson, who is scheduled to rematch against British born Pakistani boxer Amir Khan on May 19, has been tested positive for banned substance.

The rumour about Peterson’s test failure curdled into grim reality, when his representatives were forced to admit after hours of claims on Twitter that the fighter had failed a drugs test.

Peterson took Khan’s WBA and IBF light-welterweight titles in his home town, Washington, last December and dithered before agreeing to give Khan a chance to get his titles back. It was not made clear when he tested positive.

Peterson’s attorney, Jeff Fried, issued the following statement late on Monday: “We have tremendous respect for VADA [Voluntary Anti-Doping Association] and its mission. Lamont, [his trainer] Barry [Hunter] and the entire team emphatically support random drug-testing in the most comprehensive manner possible.

“We are working expeditiously with a team of pathologists and other medical specialists. Lamont has never had a positive test either before or after this isolated occurrence and we plan to submit medical findings by close of Tuesday reflecting the actual facts in support of Lamont’s good faith intentions and the requirements of the commission.”

Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to Senator Rehman Malik and MNA Farah Naaz Isfahani in dual nationality case, Geo News reported.

The three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary heard the plea filed by some MNAs and MPAs against alleged dual nationality of the parliamentarians here.

Deputy Attorney General informed the court that he had received reply of Rehman Malik and sought permission of the apex court for presenting the documents.

The court barred him from doing so and issued notices to Rehman Malik and Farah Naaz.

Later, the hearing was adjourned till May 10.