"The problem doesn`t seem quite as bad as we were first led to believe", said Secretary Mike Fatkin after speaking in detail with both Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram."Waqar is very upbeat about it and he`s not especially concerned. During our conversations, he was more concerned about the sun and the heatin Sri Lanka than anything else."

This optimism was also confirmed by Jonathan Barnett, Waqar`s London agent. He believes that the paceman has just broken a bone where the foot and toe join. "It is a very minor injury", Barnett said. "Waqar will have his foot in plaster for the next 14 days, but we think he will be fit within a wweek of the plaster being removed. I`ve spoken to Waqar and he has laughed off stories that he will be out for six weeks."

Later this week, Waqar will be flying from Pakistan to the U.K., and on arriving in Cardiff, the Pakistani pace ace will receive further treatment from Glamorgan`s medical staff. "We need to see him and for Dean Conway, our Physio, to assess the injury," said Mike Fatkin. "The plan was for Waqar to have a medical anyway. We are obviously delighted that it`s not going to be six weeks before he plays, but we`ve still got to be a bit cautious because he`s on the other side of the world and we haven`t had a chance to look at him. But Wasim Akram said he had a similar thing a couple of years ago and was only out for two and a half weeks. We were originally hoping that Waqar might be able to play his first game on May 2nd, but we were realistically thinking of Taunton on May 4th. That date is still a possibility, but it will probably be a little bit later before he plays."