Lots of news today...

Morning all, or afternoon or evening, where the heck you're from.

Whole bunch of things happening. Religion is waking up with Shahid Afridi, who asked to be excused from the two tests against South Africa because he's fasting. I have to say I admire that...when he gets the time, he can also work on his batting.

"I asked the Pakistan board to allow me to skip the two Tests against South Africa because it would be difficult to fast and play in Ramadan,"

"We lost the final due to poor batting and I apologised to the fans for not doing my part in the final but that did not influence my decision of not playing Tests."

So, the two things aren't connected and we'll have Afridi back in time for the one-days, to hopefully mow through South Africa's middle order. Did you notice I don't have much loyalty to my country of residence? Maybe I would if the team weren't a bunch of arrogant chokers...though I did feel sorry for them when they lost to India.

While I'm happy Mohammad Yousef is back in the squad, I still have some doubts about his loyalty. I like the guy, I mean, he's a converted Muslim and that's great, but he took his exclusion from the Twenty20 squad bitterly and went to ICL, knowing that his chances of playing in Pakistan again would be very low. The only reason he's back is because he's a good player and Pakistan need him when it comes to Tests and ODI's

"Whatever I have achieved is because of my country and I am willing to do anything for Pakistan,"

"I didn't know this clause in the ICL contract that priority had to be given to the league instead of Pakistan when international matches are happening simultaneously."

Wasn't there a loyalty bonus thrown in there? Whatever MoYo, you know you left for money and pride. No-one is that 'bholla-bhalla' (innocent and naive). Try scoring a century o two against SA and then maybe we'll forgive you for selling out.

Since Inzimam ul Haq retired from ODI, we all knew his career was over, despite him saying he was available for Test matches. So it's a given that he wasn't included in the squad to face SA, though dear Misbah-ul-Haq was and frankly, Misbah deserves this place. I hope he can really make a difference to the squad. Shoaib Akhter isn't in the squad however, probably for the safety of the other players, in case he wants to go on a random vendetta with a cricket bat.

Pakistan squad: Shoaib Malik (capt), Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Danish Kaneria, Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Hameed, Taufeeq Umar, Abdur Rehman

Finally no-one will have to feel the fear since Shaun Pollock is out for the first test, basically because he sucks but more diplomatically stated as 'South Africa is giving younger bowlers a chance'. Shaun is surprised obviously, since he feels he'll be deadly even bowling at 100.

Have a good iftaari all, or sehri, or whatever. Just go eat.