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Shoaib books place in restaurant side

David Llewellyn
Tuesday 12 June 2001 23:00 BST
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The end of Shoaib Akhtar's tour with Pakistan is not the end of cricket in England for the fast bowler this summer. It is almost certain that, with the player having been released from the squad, the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Tauqir Zia, who arrives in London today, will rubber stamp that decision.

That will then clear the way for Shoaib to turn out for Lashings, a celebrity XI based in Kent. He may have been left "spitting blood" at the weekend as he succumbed to a mystery ailment that seven doctors ­ so far ­ have been unable to diagnose, but it is not so bad that he cannot turn out for a club team on Friday.

The Rawalpindi Express ­ who set a world record of 97.7mph for the fastest delivery during the defeat by Australia at Sophia Gardens last Saturday ­ is due to make his Lashings debut against an East Kent League Representative XI at Sutton Valence School, near Maidstone.

"We don't think he is fit enough for international cricket," the Pakistan manager, Yawar Saeed, said. "He gets tired very quickly. He may be able to bowl in club cricket, but not at international level."

Shoaib sent down only five overs against Australia, taking one wicket and conceding 41 runs. "He was spitting blood at the weekend and has seen seven doctors in six days, and still we do not know what is wrong with him," Yawar said. Shoaib will be replaced by Fazl-e-Akbar, who is currently playing league cricket here.

Lashings ­ a Tex-Mex restaurant in Maidstone and a beachside bar and hotel in Antigua ­ is the brainchild of David Folb, the cricket club's chairman and a talented publicist. "Shoaib will play for us on Friday," he said yesterday. "That has never been in any doubt. And he will be available to play in all our matches until the end of the season."

Folb maintains that the club does not pay for any of its big names, and this season they boast a couple of former West Indies captains, Jimmy Adams and Richie Richardson ­ the latter is the joint owner of the Lashings operation in Antigua ­ as well as Franklyn Rose, Stuart Williams and their latest signing, Brian Lara. The wage bill is footed by Simon Noble, a Bristol-born entrepreneur who owns the Antigua-based intertops.com on-line betting company. The way it works is that intertops.com has formed a bat company. Their Rude Boy bats are manufactured by Alfred Reader in Kent, and intertops.com bats sponsors the stars.

Lara has returned to the Caribbean, but Folb says he will be back in August. Meanwhile, the East Kent XI will even now be quaking in their boots at the prospect of facing Shoaib, and the Pakistan management must be spitting nails.

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