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Off to the Caribbean
By Waqas-ur-Rahman

It was March 1992; Melbourne was the city and MCG was the ground when Imran Khan lifted the famous 'Crystal Trophy' and Pakistan became the World Champion for the first time. Now, it's 2007, March is the month and Inzamam will lead the Pakistani team into the World Cup, in an effort to repeat the 1992 performance.

With more hopes, in a different territory, with different players, facing different oppositions, our cricket team would try its best to win the trophy.

But can we rely on just hopes? The answer is pretty obvious. It will require hard work because winning the World Cup is not an easy task and nor should it be.

It was 5th of February, almost a month before the start of the World Cup 2007. Pakistan took on South Africa and the next morning, newspapers read, 'South Africa steam- roasts Pakistan'. Being a fan of Pakistan cricket team, it was embarrassing as well as disappointing. Pakistan went down chasing a total of 392. They had to go down. After all what were they chasing? A Nightmare!

In the next game, Pakistani team made a brilliant comeback and piled up a massive target of 350 odd runs and what happened to the South Africans? Even they flopped just like us! All those eyebrows, which were raised after the first match's defeat started going down slowly.

Third game, Pakistani batting failed again, but rain came to their rescue.

Next game, on a wicket which was conducive for bowlers, batting first we scored 107 and in reply South Africans chased the target in 14 overs. The last game wasn't much different.

Everyone was asking the same kind of questions, 'Where did they go wrong?' What did we lack? Probably we lacked good players in our squad, but then how would you define a good player?

Imran Khan often says  that a good player is one who has got three Ts.

1. Talent

2. Technique

3. Temperament

Let's analyze these three Ts.

Talent

        You must have heard a lot about it and everyone would tell you that we have got it in abundance. In fact, we have got loads of talent and the best thing about it is that it comes really cheap.

Technique

        Looking at most of the players playing at international level and being successful, it seems as if technique has lost its value. Success is the criterion for selecting a team nowadays.

Some would say too much concentration on technique might take the natural flair of the player away, but still most of the successful players are those with great technique.

Temperament

       You might be talented or have a great technique, but if you are not temperamentally sound, you don't belong to the good players' category. Temperament is all about absorbing pressure and being brave. It's not difficult to understand what 'absorbing pressure' has to do with temperament, but what does bravery have to do with it? What is bravery?

Is it about going out in the field and hitting the bowler for 20 odd runs in an over? Or is it about hitting the batsman on his head? No. It's easy to hit a six and get out on the next delivery, but much more difficult is to stay out there and face the Lees, the McGraths and the Muralis.

Imagine the West Indian bowlers of the 70s and 80s coming hard on you. You have got no place to hide. The fearsome four, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, and Colin Croft all in the same team and to face them was the hardest thing to do. In such situations only the brave can survive and yes, this is what international cricket is all about.

The Green Squad

Now turning the focus towards the Pakistani team, World Cup is just round the corner and 15 players will enter the cricket grounds of the Caribbean with lots of expectations. A squad of 15 players has been selected, but who'll make it to the playing eleven, no one knows. There are many players in the current team who lack match temperament. Reason behind this is very simple, lack of planning and defensive approach.

Following are the names of players of Pakistan Cricket Team for the 2007 World Cup.

Inzamam-ul-Haq(Capt), Younis Khan (VC), Mohammad Yousuf, Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Khan Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Danish Kaneria, Rao Iftikhar, Rana Naved ul Hassan, Mohammad Asif where as Umer Gul, Shoaib Akhtar are not fully fit.

Problems and more problems

Overall, the team combination doesn't look too good because very few of them have the ability to perform when required. The things that will be a matter of concern for the Captain are the number of players on the injury list and the fielding standard of Pakistan Cricket team, because fielding is its weakest department.

Opening slot

We are still facing problems as far as the opening slot is concerned. The selectors selected Imran Nazir, who performed in a single match and now is in the World Cup squad. The players who have been dropped are Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt, who in my opinion, have performed better than the ones who have been selected. I would prefer these two in my team considering their ability to play well under pressure. But, let's hope the selected players do the trick for us.    

All-rounders? Very few!

Another disturbing factor is the number of all-rounders in the team. Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Afridi and Abdul Razzaq all are the same type of all-rounders. Except for Shoaib Malik, I don't consider the rest of them even as all-rounders.

An all-rounder is the one who should be able to make his place in the team either as a batsman or bowler. If he is a batting all-rounder, then he should be in the team as a batsman and his bowling should play a supporting role. And if he is a bowling all-rounder, then it's the other way around. Hafeez has a batting average of 18 runs; Afridi's average is 22. Though Razzaq has a better career average, his recent record doesn't speak well of him. Similarly, they don't make a place in the team as bowlers. These are the players about whom Imran Khan uses a term 'Relu-Katta' (good for nothing).

Some might say that we have quite a few hard-hitting batsmen in the team (Boom Booms) who can hit a six at will. But do these Booms have guts and ability to face the chin music and win games for Pakistan?

A name that I always wanted in the world cup squad is that of Danish Kaneria. I believe only bowlers can win you matches and they can only do that by taking wickets. A leg spinner is a wicket-taking bowler. As Abdul Qadir once said: 'If a batsman has 100 plans to play a bowler, a leg spinner has 1000 plans to deceive him.' Kaneria can take wickets in the middle overs just like Abdul Qadir who did it in the 1983 and 1987 World Cups, or Mushtaq Ahmed who did the job in the 1992 World Cup. The selection of Danish Kaneria is another very interesting story. His selection shows nothing but panic in the management. A player who wasn't selected in the last tour before the World Cup because he wasn't considered a good One-Day bowler now makes a place in the squad. One wonders how well he will play in the World Cup keeping in mind that he hasn't played a One Day game for ages. 

Yet another worry

Fast bowling is a huge worry for the Captain. Every one is on the injury list and those who are not injured are out of form. We hope that they all get 'fit' before the World Cup because a fit Pakistani bowling line is nothing short of menace for batsmen around the world.

How to win the World Cup

I wish it were easy to answer. But if I had to give the answer to this question, the simplest of the answers would be: The team that will perform its basics in the right will come out as winners. Ask any professional and he will tell you that it is the most difficult thing to do.

The team has been selected, but many questions are still lingering in the minds of the Pakistani people. Is the team brave enough? Do they have the temperament, talent and technique? Concentrating on Pakistan cricket team, keeping the '3Ts' in mind, have we got 'Good Players'? Well, we have Inzamam, Yousuf, Younis, Shoaib, Asif... But are they good enough? Will our 'Express trains' and 'Jets' be able to heal their injuries and get over their worries and make the batsmen dance to their own tunes? Will the flag be up again, will we be able to take the Cup, will we rule the world again, have we got the key?

Keep your fingers crossed and get ready to find out all this because the Caribbean Mela is about to begin!