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Cricket World Cup “Big War ready to Start
February 04, 2011
Cricket is one of the popular game of the world no doubt which has three different format and 50 over’s One Day International is one of the popular format of the cricket, which decide the world champion of the game after 4 years. The International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2011 is this time playing in the soul of South Asia (hosts nations Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka) from 19th February 2011. ICC already announced the final fixture of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
This time ICC once again changed the format of the World Cup to give chance to the bet teams to come forward. For this they distributed 14 top teams of the worlds into two groups. The event starts on 19 February 2011 with the match of two host nations India VS Bangladesh in Dhaka and final of the world cup will be played in Mumbai on 2nd April.
14 top teams of the world divided in two groups. In Group A Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Kenya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe while in Group B comprising Bangladesh, India, England, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Ireland, Netherlands
With each passing day, we are getting close to the Cricket World Cup 2011. It is obviously a grand event for all the cricket fans and lovers and every person wishes his team to win. The cricket world cup 2011 craze is surmounting on the Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans are quite optimistic that these teams have bright chances of winning the World Cup 2011.
Top teams like Australia, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, England and as well as Pakistan will fight in the biggest war of cricket world cup to get the top title and this is the right time that Pakistan show their best to wining this war and open the doors of international cricket in Pakistan.
A sympathetic glance over Pakistan's World Cup squad would conclude that chief selector Mohsin Khan and his men have done well to find 15 players to send first to Sri Lanka and then possibly further.
Such has been the last year; a period treated by the rest of the world as a run-in to the game's showpiece event, a time to fine-tune selections, strategies and ideas, but one in which Pakistan has changed the very face of their first XI.
Four first-choice players were banned by the board in March 2010, of whom the careers of three - Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan - have come to a halt. In the case of Yousuf, who was not picked in the 15-man squad, this is very likely the end. The clouds over Malik don't look likely to shift for a while. It is difficult also to see a way back for Naved, such an under-rated part of Pakistan's few ODI successes over the last half a decade.
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir lie suspended, their careers on the line. Effectively the whole spine of what would conceivably be a first XI is out.
But all that is not to despair, for one fine truism has stood unmoved through the last year and that is the durability of Pakistan's conveyor belt of talent. Consider that the side that played New Zealand in the first Test of the on-going series, in Hamilton, had only one name from the side that took them on in the first Test in the 2009-10 series, in Dunedin - Umar Gul. And they won in Hamilton in three days, by ten wickets.
More relevantly, recent ODI results, in the Asia Cup, and against England and South Africa, reaffirm coach Waqar Younis' belief that the side's primary issue is an inability to kill off contests. That there is feistiness, especially when circumstances conspire against them, skill and ability is not in dispute.
Above all, there is freshness about the squad; for the first time at a World Cup since 1999. Only seven have previous World Cup experience. An opportunity awaits the other eight. Umar Akmal may have regressed but he remains a potent limited-overs force; Asad Shafiq's numbers are unexceptional but his play has something to it; Wahab Riaz has done more in the last six months than many thought him capable of; Ahmed Shahzad might just be the firecracker Pakistan need at the top. They must know that a World Cup hundred, or a World Cup five-for are feats on which entire careers and legends can be built.
The pace attack is workable, the spinners solid. There is cover for the opening slots, old and new heads in the middle order and three allrounders. Can there be any serious quibbling over the 15? Twelve, maybe even 13, pick themselves.
Meanwhile it seems that nothing is going right for the Pakistan one day skipper Shahid Afridi as he is not only criticized by the ex-cricketers but his former teammates have also started criticizing him on his captaincy tactics.
The latest in the list is the former test captain and suspended player Salman Butt, who played under the captaincy of Shahid Afridi for almost six to eight months, has termed Afridi as directionless skipper.
“You don’t see any planning and innovation in Afridi’s captaincy. He is the captain who has no direction and no vision,” said Butt.
“Pakistan Cricket Board should appoint Misbah as skipper for the World Cup as he is a born leader and always lead from the front. Pakistan cricket team played exceptionally well under the captaincy of Misbah during the test series and you can see the contrast in the first one day international match against New Zealand as it was almost the same team which participated in the test series,” he added.
“I have the news that many players don’t want to play under the captaincy of Shahid Afridi,” Butt claimed.
On the other hand PCB has issued national coach Waqar Younis a notice for expressing surprise over the board's decision to not name the captain when it announced Pakistan's final squad for the World Cup. Waqar had said it "would have been better" if the selectors had named the captain along with the final 15, and that not doing so "would only lead to issues".
"We have issued Waqar a notice asking him to explain his comments on the captaincy issue since he is under contract with the PCB," the board's spokesman said. He explained that under PCB's media policy it was binding on all team officials and players to avoid giving statements that questioned or negated the policies of the board.
In recent times, the PCB has adopted a new media policy for players and officials and has come down hard on any violations. The new guidelines also limit direct interaction between the team and journalists, and prefers the use of press releases.
Squad: Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir, Ahmed Shehzad
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