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Pakistan team to fly back today

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board said here on Friday that the national team was scheduled to fly back home from the West Indies on Saturday.

The team's expected return was announced at a press conference by Nasim Ashraf, who resigned as PCB chairman after the team's defeat to Ireland, but said it was his responsibility to continue in the position until he heard from President Pervez Musharraf the board patron.

He said the team was scheduled to leave Montego Bay, a resort to which they flew on Thursday, at 6 p.m. local time.

Dr. Ashraf, who took over as chairman only six months ago, said it was his "earnest desire" that the cricketers, who had undergone "unbelievable stress and trauma" in the last few days, should be reunited with their families as early as possible.

Giving an assurance on behalf of the PCB, he said the team would be available to the Jamaican authorities at any time even after their return home, and "will cooperate" with them in the investigations relating to coach Bob Woolmer's death.

He said the last communication he received from Woolmer was an email immediately after the team's defeat. It said "the boys did their best" but it was not their day, and that this was the "saddest day" of his life since South Africa's 1999 defeat by England.

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