Akhtar’s fitness was on trial when he led the Federal Areas team against Punjab in the Pentangular Cup match in Lahore this week. After going wicketless in 18 overs on a batting pitch, he criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board for the arrangements.

Shoaib described the tie as a ‘B’ grade match and said the Board was doing no service to cricket by providing sub-standard balls and preparing dead pitches.

Already facing disciplinary action for an earlier statement in which he accused the Board of having double standards and a dual policy towards players, Akhtar has now been dropped from the Federal Areas team.

A team official said that the decision to drop him and hand over captaincy to Test pacer Rao Iftikhar was taken after much discussion.

“We felt he had violated the code of conduct with his comments after the match and also failed to gel with other players and inspire them. His performance was also poor,” the official said.

Sources, however, said that PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf had specifically told the Federal Areas team management to drop Akhtar at once if he lashed out at the Board once again.

“The PCB chief exerted pressure on the team management because the entire tournament and the teams are funded by the Board. Since the Board had already issued a notice to Akhtar for breach of conduct and had given him time until February 18 to submit an explanation, they could not have taken more action against him,”  sources said.