Pakistan & West Indies Shape Up for the Semi Final of VB Series by Dr Naved Yazdani

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Event:

VB Series 2004/05

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DateLine: 30th January 2005

 

It was surprising to read in some sections of the press that Pakistan needs to win one of their remaining two matches in order to qualify for the final. That is not true. In fact if Pakistan wins against Australia (which is quite unlikely) even then they will have to beat West Indies otherwise Pakistan will have 12 points while West Indies will over take them with 14 points if they win the last encounter against Pakistan! So a win against Australia, apart from doing a world of good to the rock bottom morale of the side and perhaps helping the points cause in case of a wash out, will be inconsequential as far as Pakistan’s chances of qualifying are concerned.

 

The clash between Pakistan and West Indies in the last league game is going to be a virtual semi final and which ever side wins will play Australia in the final. Looking at the massacre of our bowling in the last game against West Indies, I will repeat my initial assertion of playing an extra batsman rather than a bowler. We need to remember that both Iftikhar and Khalil are totally raw and inexperienced and cannot be expected to fulfill the absence of Shoaib or Sami. What’s the point in playing them? Rana Naveed, our main bowler at the moment is being hit at an economy of over 7 runs an over, why we need another inexperienced bowler who will probably take a wicket or two after conceding 70 plus runs in 10 overs and helping the opposition pile up 300 plus runs! Who will chase these runs? Obviously our batters and Younas Khan is again my man for the remaining games instead of a specialist bowler. ODIs, unlike test games, are ideal for all rounders or “bits and pieces” players rather than full fledged specialists. Right now our side is packed with quality all rounders, three of them, and adding a batsman will only help our cause while chasing big targets. We have seen that inclusion of a specialist bowler could not prevent the West Indies from scoring 340 odd runs and Pakistan did come close to that target! Remember they salvaged a bonus point from West Indies in that game. Had there been an extra batsman instead of Iftikhar, who know his contribution of a quick 50 or 60 might have seen Pakistan through.

 

Cricket, like any other walk of life, is unpredictable. The risk or the unpredictability can only be reduced through planning and executing those plans for each game. At present the situation demands us to be unorthodox and aggressive in risk taking and innovation, otherwise if we just go through the motions, nothing unexpected is going to happen for us. Fortune favors the brave and Pakistan cricket has to come up with bold and brave decisions if they have to salvage some respect from this difficult and so far unfruitful tour.

 

Pakistan needs to stick to one of the principles of well known management guru Stephen Covey; “First Things First” and should not be too preoccupied with the forthcoming Indian tour. Winning VB series title, in my humble opinion, is in no way less important than doing well in India. But all our thoughts seem to be focused on the Indian tour and we are forgetting the most important assignment at hand. Not a professional attitude towards the game and its management. Readers will remember that when India visited Pakistan last year, they also had come from Australia and did very well there because they were totally focused on what was their job at that moment. That is not happening with PCB and even the security team which was sent to India has shown an extremely apologetic and compromising attitude so far, in stark contrast to the Indian security team which grilled the entire Pakistani administrative machinery with their probes and inquires. Who can forget or ignore the foul mouthed threats of Shiv Sena and the Gujrat massacre but PCB seems to be too busy in making their Indian counterparts happy by accepting whatever is presented to them. We need to show some character and ensure that our team does not, under any circumstances, play in a venue where there’s a slightest chance of crowd disturbances. And Indians have a long history of being sour losers and brining in politics in the game and disrupting international matches. 1996 World Cup semi final and 1999 test against Pakistan are two episodes of the recent crowd behavior in India and even during the one off Kolkata game last November the crowd seemed hostile and unfriendly, very much unlike the Lahore or Karachi crowd. I am definitely a great supporter of the peace initiative in general and growth of cricketing ties between the two countries in particular, but not at the cost of our own national integrity by appearing too eager to please BCCI.

 

The proceedings in the VB Series so far have also demonstrated that West Indies is a better and tougher side than Pakistan. They were extremely unlucky not to have come out victorious in the rain affected game against Australia last week where they had the Australian reeling at 30 for 5! Then again in the next game they managed to contain the Australia and looked on course for a victory. But the Australian tail did not allow that to happen and West Indies conceded too many runs in the final overs and Australia managed to reach a respectable 269. The men from Caribbean have shown the ability to play as a unit; they have displayed a sense of team spirit and look much more content and relaxed than the Pakistanis. They go into the next game against Pakistan as favorites to play Australia in the finals.

 

Dr. Naved Yazdani (annyazdani@hotmail.com) is a free lance cricket writer and analyst.

 

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2005 Naved Yazdani)