Cricinfo - Blogs - Pak Spin - Abandon hope? Not yet

There is hope yet. I am sure Imran's Tigers taught us all how never to give up. Anyway to the point

I agree with what you say Kamran

Yes Pakistan's only problem is not Rana, but he is a major one, and has been since his return from injury, leaking runs and not scoring them.

I think Sami or Azhar should be brought in for Rana. Or Afridi for Nazir and then both Sami can bet brought in for Rana and Azhar for Kaneria because we would have sufficient spin between Malik, Afridi and Hafeez. If Azhar, Sami and Umar Gul are on they are match winners themselves.

Yousuf and Inzamam need to move up one spot but that leaves a problem as Younis also performs usually his best at number 3.

Inzamam is a great captain, however he needs to learn to lead better. Our players if they realize the bowlers are delivering excellent balls again and again need to rattle the bowlers like Malik did near the end of the innings, take two steps up and slog the ball over the bowlers head or something to that effect.

It looks Rana is in inzi's good books. Also someone has to inform inzi over count for Umer Gul as he can't complete his quota of 10 over.

Winners win, and losers lose. A weak team is a weak team, but should at least go down chasing a win.

When Pakistan chased they seemed to have no intent whatsoever.They need Azhar Mahmood to replace Rana, and Afridi in place of one of the openers(make Kamran Akmal open--anyways opening is a problem which is not being solved). It is the lower middle order which is going to finish such chases for the team!

Rana should be out immidiately and should be relaced with Sami... Imran Nazir should be replaced with Afridi. Kaneria should be replaced with Azhar... It is the batting wich has been the root cause of recent failures not the bowling..

you got to be on some of that ganja maan!

"there is only team that Pakistan don't have the skill to beat in this tournament and that's Australia"

Lets see - India, SA come to mind - Pakistan will (and, unlike you, I will not wait to eat my words) get a whooping while playing either of these teams.

KANERIA needs to go, RANA's run is over, Shoiab and Younis need to switch places, Younis also needs to score, And Azhar needs to come in and SLOG. And please get me a oppener that can last 10 overs.

what is the point of talking when the people in charge have cobwebs in their ears and a huge void instead of brains...shame!

Kamran Akmal, there were some positives in this game.. watched it the whole way.. till we got defeated. Bowling was good.. but still i thought we could have restricted them below 200.. so there was the first mistake.. and Batting like several others suggested was pathetic.. surely was ashamed.. we have a good batting line up.. but none stood up to Perform.. 222 Defensive.. saving their wickets for giving them up later.. neither scored nor stayed..

I would feel honoured if our Team won the WorldCup.. but let us get down to facts.. there are much better teams in this world cup compared to us.. and to say that we fear only Australia is mere stupidity.. or overanticipating a miracle.. which is not going to Happen..

By far the worst it hurt me was these Westindians got mulled by the Indians (85 allout) and India winning by 9 wickets and we lost to them.. What a Shame,,, Hopefully we will perform well in the next two games and first let us think of reaching Super8 and then think about Australia or any other Country..

team does not have enough backup for batsmen, i still think selection commetty did big blunders like they preffered sami and rana naveed on shahid nazir, who was really in good form. its better to do some more experince with opening by changing position of imran nazir to one down and by sending younis and hafeez as opener.

I was never a fan of yours. But this has crossed the line. Stop being irresponsible and stop giving people ideas that are just plain ludicrous.Have realistic expectations. Two openers that barely average 20 and a captain that has the heart of a sparrow are not going to win us the world cup. It just isn't going to happen. If we beat Zimbabwe and the other team in the group (and its looking tougher by the minute) we may be able to sneak in to super eights, where we will recieve a giant thrashing, and be the laughing stock of the World. I for one don't want to see another gutless performance from people who don't have the mettle to withstand any kind of pressure. These guys are giving us a bad name and getting richer while they do it. So think before you write or give your job to someone who can.

Rana the good boy grew the beard.. inzi prefer the hairy faces. but hold on, what's your other option.. sami?? dude. it's like choosing between the worst.. and the worst. Truth is inzimam, with all due respect to his class and calibre, is past his peak. The man has openly told about his plans not to retire. This means he is lacking what some of the other captains have had - a motivation and a dream to end their careers on a high note.

different people have different choices, but if taken a sample of a good number of people with cricketing knowledge, this team's playing 11 has 4-5 players that would be judged deserving to be dropped with various reasons.

And mr.kamran being a journalist, writing about this hope, which i have hidden somewhere inside me too perhaps, you have realisticly told a good joke.

Pakistan have the potential but the selecters have got too put their foot down and drop the likes of Rana-Naved and maybe give a new wicket keeper a chance. Not only is Pakistans bowling weakened with the loss of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif but their opening pair of batsmen are just too dodgy, it needs to be sorted and qucik!! Time is running out and to win the world cup it needs to be sorted. However hence all my criticism Pakistans bowling performance was quite encouraging but their batsmen need to start playing for their team and not themseleves.

Pathetic perfomance. They don't deserve to qualify for second round. They should come back and do some tablegh.

Kamran,

I completely agree with you and still have strong faith in Pakistan lifting the cup. All your suggestions make sense and I still can not understand as to why Inzamam is reluctant to play at number 3. Continous pushing from Imran Khan made him accept it in a press conference as well as a promise to play up. But still! Can anyone answer?

I hope our guys don't let us down again. My odds" 12-1 in Pakistan's favour. Keep fingers crossed.

Its true that Pakistan has lost the match,but I am with Kamran that Pakistan can surprise everyone.If Younis has to come for batting after 2 or 3 overs then why shouldn't we try him as an opener as we did in he warm-up match.Why was Azhar Mahmood not in the side,its really a big question.I firmly believe that if we include Afridi & Sami in places of Rana & Kaneria and Younis starts to open the innings with Hafeez then Pakistan can beat any team in the world cup.Last but not least,please keep in mind that Pakistan has lost the match due to its batting not due to bowling..

hmmm.. ur best players are shoaib, asif and inzi. 2 r 'injured' and who knows what'll happen to their careers. asif more likely to escape but i dont c a good future for shoaib. and inzi - hes 37 now. whats in store for pak after a yr or so when there mite not b an inzi n shoaib????

first of all, i dont understand the opening pair pakistan are using, imran nazir? oh well they had this massive argument on channel GEO before world cup started. majority of fans had argued whether he should have been selected because of his unconvincing performance on south africa tour and hes repeating it here. i dont get why kamran akmal didnt open the batting. he has good record against the west indies.. well i jus dont know what to say really.. could have been a different story if yousuf batted at no.3 inzaman at no.4 and younis no.5 like everyone has been talking about it.. but it didnt happen did it?

Pakistan is the worst team with tons of talent that never performs when it needs to. Rana definitely needs to sit next to Woolmer for the next few matches and watch some videos maybe of how to bowl in death overs. I think injecting Sami into the attack will help and stretching the batting lineup with Afridi/Azhar would shorten the tail as well.

It's do or die time now.

Looks like Mr Abbasi has gone nuts. I read his article before the start of the world cup about PAK winning the world cup.

There is no way ion this world, PAK will win world cup without Shoaib, Asif and Razzaq.

And I was very surprised about the article after losing opening game against WI. PAK has no fire power in this world cup. This team will not even make it to Semi's

Bowling Performance was good although Rana,as much as i like him, should be out and in with Sami. He hasn't delivered for the past year and he has run out of chances.
Many people will question Yousuf and Inzy but if your No4 and 5 are in the middle after 10 overs then you can't blame the way they went about the task, the pressure eventually got the better of them. Again Shoaib Malik was left battling wihtout any partners, he seems to be the only player who has the confidence to middle the ball as soon as the first delivery.
However i agree that we can progress to the semi - finals if we improve our batting.
The order has to be the same, we have made our choice now stick with it. Here are the changed i would make for the rest of the matches :

1. rana Out - Sami in

2. After his ban Afridi in - Kaneria Out, he offers more wiht the bat and i dont see Kaneria bowling much better than Afridi.

3. The only changes i would make the batting line-up is Yousuf at 3, Inzy at 4 and Younis Khan at 5.

Alhtough this was a poor result we have two games to gain form and confidence, i am still a firm beleiver we can win this world cup. If we are to do so i think Inzimam will lead from the front and when he hits form Pakistan will hit form.

KEEP THE FAITH!!

As a WI fan, I believe, under the circumstances, the team did not perform to their potential. But for you Pakistan fans to belittle your heroes in this manner.....you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Though Ind and Pak are supposed to be sworn enemies... it is so funny to read these comments becoz this is exactly how Indians behave when the team looses. Comon guys.. Pak is not as bad as some guys here say (I am an indian supporter) This is a long tourney and 4 wins out of 7 (against test playing nations) will take any team to the top 4. So dont be so hasty. I hate to say this... but i agree with Kamran Abbasi.

Pervaiz Musharraf is the root of all problems

am also a dreamer like u....sometimes u have 2 dream big 2 achieve something......i support r team all the way

Never thought I would say this, "Bring Sami back" fast. Yes, thats exactly how desperate we are right now. I would stick with Kaneria for now. We also need to kick Imran Nazir in the rear and out of the opening spot; one Afridi is enough. I would have Hafeez and Younis open with Malik coming in at number three and Moyo and Inzi to follow. Malik is the proven match winner at number 3 as he plays positive which takes pressure off the team. I am not sure what to do with the hope yet; for now my only hope is to see our openers putting up a 50 run stand. Imran said it right in that Geo's Road to WC show, When openers click, even tailenders can score. For once, I would like to see Moyo and Inzi come out of that ultra defensive mode and play an entertaining inning. I am now praying that we beat Ireland and Zimbabwe so that I could utilize the 200$ dish network subscription in super 8s.

Well I hope all is well Kamram,and all of you who support the Pakistani Team.
We need to learn,consolidate and make changes...
This is how it should be....
Imran Farhat,Mohd Hafeez,Shoaib Malik,Younis Khan,Shahid Afridi,Mohammad Yousaf,Inzamam Ul haq,Azhar Mahmmod,Kamran Akmal,Mohammed Sami,Umar Gul...

Take care all

Good Luck Pakistan..

great effort from the boys, boys played well..

the whole world knows how pathetic RANA is but its gonna cost us the world cup before WOOLMER and INZY accept that fact.Just like it cost us the SOUTH AFRICA series to know that FARHAT is not evan club material.Why do we have to loose to make changes why cant we be proactive and make changes before or during the tournaments.It is unbelievable that what every normal human being is able see WOOLMER and INZY cant see that.BUT i guess its gonna be evan more difficult to drop RANA now coz of his new beard so guys just keep watching these so called proffesionals loose and wait for this world cup to end which could not be that far for us and hope for some changes. PS. MR ABBASI when i read your blog about KANERIA that he should be in the one day team i was like ARE U SERIOUS MAN.BUT after reading your blog that WE SHOULD ONLY FEAR AUSTRALIA i really dont respect your opinions any more.U ARE AS INCONSISTANT AS OUR TEAM

Pak team is very weak and there is no doubt about that...no chance of reaching semis..

I wish Zimbabwe's old team was in the tournament with Flower brothers, Heath Streak and company so that Pakis tigers would have got out in the first round. Well still there is a hope in the shape of Ireland.

Its a shame that since last world cup Pak couldn't produce a decent opening pair. They kicked Saeed Anwar out who played better than everyone in the last world cup and kept Inzi in team who sucked in the last world cup. They should have kept Saeed Anwar so that atleast he could hold one opening end and may be teach one youngster how to open.

Bob Woolmer did nothing to Paki team. he is useless and so is the committee who always play Rana and Kamran Akmal. Both of them are useless. Kamran Akmal is the worst keeper ever produced by pak I beleive.

I believe, for a successful World Cup, the Home side must perform well. So, Pakistan have performed their role in boosting the sails of the West Indian team. Rana Naved is a match-conceding bowler. His form has been absent since last season.. He needs to rest his mind and body in Pakistan.. The entire Pakistani team is a bunch of lazy bums.. can't field for peanuts.. Sack the fielding coach.. Hafeez, Nazir are impostors.. Bring back Taufiq Umar and Butt.. Where is Asim Kamal ? He was the best Pakistani batsman 3 seasons ago.. Big up Iftikhar Rao and Umar Gul!! Pakistan have some decent pacers left who are clean :) Hafeez can only play as a specialist bowler. I believe there is room only for 1 all-rounder in the team. Pick specialist batsmen and have faith in them. Pakistan can still qualify to the knock-out rounds, I hope!

Selectors please use some common sense,Rana needs to go out for sure,I dont understand why he got selected at first place when we have better all rounder Azher,secondly inzi should come up in the order,In 1992 worldcup Imran changed his batting order and used to come up on 2 and that worked for Pakistan in that worldcup and most importantly Pakistan needs to play with positive attitude,today their body language was not there where it needed to be, Yunis missed very easy catch and then got out by playing such a irresponsible shot and finally this was just first match, its a long way to go and Pakistan can make a come back in next matches.

you people disgust me, your team loses a match due to some generally bad decisions and performances and we seem to think that our country's cricket program's hopeless. Give me a break! If this team makes a turn around all of you will all of a sudden jump right back onto the band wagon, stick with your team through thick and thin, we're missing 4 or 5 key players right now, and we need to pull up our socks, but it's ONE GAME. My changes would be:
1. Rana goes out, Azhar in
2. Kaneria out, Sami in, we can live without an extra spinner for a game before Afridi returns
3. One of the openers out, Inzy opens, Yasir Hameed goes into middle order, Inzamam calls himself a captain, well prove it, the greatest of captains open when their team needs it and this guy sits in his comfy spot.
4. For the love of god, kick Kamran Akmal out, put in anyone...ANYONE.

Don't give up on this team, we just have to survive the next game, (Ireland, shouldn't be too worrying) and when Afridi returns and these changes put into place, we can live through this and have some hope of doing decent. But stop being cry babies and giving up on your country.

There is not much one can do other than rip one's hair out and thank God I have a lot of hair or I would be bald by now. Pakistan team has constantly let us down. In England, in South africa and to hear comments like we had a good match practice and the boys are in top form plus I will do what my captain asks me to do, at least for me are words only and does nothing but to suggest that the team is playing with the expectations of the Pakistani people. Politics play a big part in this also. All the way from PCB down to the players bar a few. Before the fiasco in England at least we had a good run for a few series but then politics came back. Let us hope that Pakistan cricket team does not go the way of the hockey tem. Rana Naveed should never have been taken to the world cup. Imran Nazir did one good inning and the rest lousey and he is also taken. What is the logic in that. When is PCB ever going to learn.

i am not embarassed by the fact that we lost but i am really dissapointed. Major problems ;

1) why havent we been able to find a permanent opener for 2 yrs ?
2) why would you want rana to play ...put sami or azhar
3)why keep kaneria in the team...too expensive and pathetic fielder
4)let younis open and push inzi and yusuf up.
5)why cant we adapt to global picthes ? The PCB should make not only batting friendly instead different types of pitches so that the future generations can adapt more to foreign soils.

All in all Gul was fantastic,rao was a surprise performer and malik was the lone warrior . We still have hope as long as we dont slip up against ireland and zimbabwe.

Either the gas leak at the Pakistan Hotel or too much pot smoking might have played a role in today's pathetic batting performance. The diffrence was not having BOOM BOOM Afridi on the side. Pakistan management has never stood up to promising players.Play BOOM BOOM Afridi and you will go home with a BANG.

People really should NOT look too much into that match WI vs India last week. WI was experimenting with a different batting line up, filled with several youngsters who only just concluded their debut regional fc season in the West Indies. That warm up was to give them a go at it. The West Indies batting performance today was not as good as it could have been, but Samuels was a joy to watch, Lara played lovely shots, Sarwan put up a resilient 49 and Dwayne Smith powered 32 off 15 balls. And Corey's six off the last ball was fantastic to watch.

The West Indian bowling was good period. Only four extras and no no-balls. Sometimes keeping it simple helps and that's what they did. Bravo bowled straight, Smith kept it tight, they knew the batsmen would get frustrated and capitalized on that as the run rate reached up to as much as 17rpo at one point I believe. The West Indies can be a quality team and they proved that today. Pakistan was outplayed.

Sami in for Naved Hasan
Afridi in for Kaneria
the rest of the team should stay the same !!
i keep reading that we got not so good a team and i don't agree
with the above mentioned players coming back in, we have a good chance to making it through the super 8,
Australia and SA are good in their home grounds with fast tracks, not in west indies, these wickets suits Asian teams better
I have a strong feeling pakistan will learn a lot from this defeat and we will c a changed team in the coming games, InshAllah

Its sad but true, Absence of shoaib and asif is certainly hurting Pakistan. Anyways i think windies were quite lucky to win today. The way there batsman played & missed one ball after another. I think hafeez shouldnt open the innings and malik should open instead of him. Hafeez is better off coming in before the tail, hes a good bowler though.

i totally agree with you..and many of who thought, oh forget this..'hamara kuch nahin ho sakta'..will b sitting down with all their passion watching the game against Ireland. Thats how we Pakistani's are.
i support them no matter what, other teams are in to win aswell.
just the changes that definitely should be made are azhar to replace kaneria, with all due respect to the latter. And Sami to replace Rana, no respect talk here!
Love those last couple of lines! summed it up like no other

The problem begins with Inzy,I am an Indian but was perplexed to see a fellow sub continent batsman like him batting like a rabbit.The bowlers did their job but Inzy looked like playing a test match and so was yousuf,during their partnership they endured a spell of nine overs for 13 runs.Inzy was either fooling himself by showing no hint of taking the attack to the bowlers and believing it could be done easily as the RR kept mounting.The telling blow was that crucial slow partnership that made a mockery of Shoaib's fine effort later.If the bowling was so good, how did Shoaib smack so many in so few a deliveries.Even in the post match conference he was least perturbed,either Inzy knows the final outcome as a Nostradamus or has simply given up.Light fire in this big man to perform, the openers as usual failed, no surprises as Salman Butt cools his heels.Great seelction and an even greater inspirational captain.It was a let down for all sub-continent fans who believe one of us can win this tournament or atleast stretch the Aussies.No wonder they win so many times when faced with such lazy grizzly bears as Inzy.

Really today Pak disappointed me, my friends, and family. The basic root cause is Inzy, who doesn't have any leadership quality and taking easy big game for the God sake. God helps those who tried hard. He should screw the poor performer in his team. He should put target to the individuals otherwise Pak will definitely loose against Zimbabwe as they are monitoring very closely the weakness of each players. Inzy be dynamic... and get Azhar, Sami, Afridi in next matches... Good Luck.

kamran,
Hopeless, these guys beyond belief, slack management, pathetic captaincy. half of the match was won when pakistan team got fielding first and getting opposition to 186/6 stuff it theses guys are the a load of rubbish. WE DON'T WANT A REPEAT OF THE SOUTH AFRICA WORLD CUP. WE WANT PERFORMANCE. THE players are capable enough and are paid enough from government of pakistan treasury to pull up a win. I think our new ball attack must be sami + umar . Sami at least has a good track of keeping himself fit. I like his bowling a lot. Kaneria can stay. Its alarming how much the team relies on Mohd Hafeez in terms of bowling. Rana must be paid to stay away from cricket. he's injured at county and he needs an year. county should be banned for all pakistani bowlers. They rather be paid better.

Opening I want Salman Butt there with Younis Khan or Shoaib Malik. I would have had the Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt pair but when the management cant swallow a single duck with this pair and is happy with 10 ducks with whatever replacement they come up with the only thing you could do is get frustrated. If the management like replaces an opening batsman they can only do that when they have something better to replace them with. These guys have a habit to go backwards instead.
They still are a good team and the team did suffer from not having Abdul razzaq, Shahid Afridi,
Shoaib and Asif but they still were very near to victory and just gave it away. I want every new pakistani batsmen to be banned to play any shot for first 8 deliveries. They should defend first eight deliveries and they can go from there. They are not Javed Miandad or Asif Iqbal. They work as a bunch and by defending for an over at least half of the team can avoid losing wickets. They fall very quick in an opposition trap and they should instead outsmart the opponents.

The bowlers gave away about 20 runs too many especially after having got the first use of the pitch but really, the problem lies with the batters - more so openers. Neither Imran Nazir nor Mohammed Hafeez have even a decent first class record as openers leave alone in a world cup. The openers in a one day game are key. They need to shock the heck out the opposition bowling and set the tone. No team has gone on to win major competitions without a good opening pair. Sorry Mr. Abbasi - you get it wrong - unless Woolmer and Co decide to send Afridi and Shoaib at the top and designate a good finisher - the underrated Kamran possibly?.

the fact that the top 3 played retarded shots to throw their wickets away is beyond my imagination. Yousuf's dismissal was bound to occur as he was trying to up the tempo after playing a test match for a bigger part of the game. I don't think making any changes would yield us the results that one would hope for....let's just hope that Inzi starts thinking like a leader and lead from the front...Imran Khan and all the ex-cricketers keep critisizing his strategic tactics yet he (Inzi) goes on to repeat the same mistakes over and over again!

y the hell these so called professional bowlers cant bowl yorkers in last 10 overs???? Rana naveed is pathetic and i bet he will still be there in the next match..! i dont know on wt basis hes been slected for wc squad..! pathetic..! woolmer doesnt know how to plan a game. they will be beaten by the group match again and wont even qualify for super 8.

I wrote in my earlier posting Please take One game at at a time, its a long tournament,I also predicted that batting will be the key to this match, few things went wrong in this match, Thick headed display of batting from Younis khan and Imran Nazir,Younis I guess is not serious he is too experienced to play such shots,either he is on a MISSION of his own or he is completely dumb,bcz there was no reason to play that shot he should be grilled for that as regards Imran Nazir I dont no why we include such players in our team and scheme of plans such breed of players are causing more harm to their teams than benefit, look at sehwag,gayle,Afridi,and others only those teams can afford such players who have rock solid batting line up,I was expecting sami or Azhar in place of Rana but again Rana was included I hope todays game will prove to the team management that he is out of form please if you have any doubt let it go.
We missed the depth in the batting dearly usually
in this situation we have Afridi,Razzak and Shoaib
but today we had Rao,Rana and shoaib.
I hope for the next match Rana should be replaced
with Sami or Azhar,also one critical blunder has been exposed which will haunt us in the tournament
we have no batsman in reserves I think yasir hameed should have been included instead of Yasir Arafat.
A few positives Malik played very well,Bowling was good a part from Rana, hopefully Pakistan will
learn from the mistakes,and perform well in the next match.

Well hopes with the Pakisatn team. I am pretty sure that you are kidding Kamran. I would be glad if they make it to the next round. Infact I don't want them to make it to the next round and lose once again to India. I do not understand one thing, we always keep listening in media, PCB claiming that they are preparing for the world cup and bla bla.... Where the hell is the preparation? I say it sadly that our team sucks and it really let us down badly today. Very poor. I just cannot believe that we are not able to pick 11 talented players from a country where every other kid has unbelievable cricketing skills. Come on we have some seriouis talent in our country but still we can't come up with a good enough team for such a huge tournament. Its ridiculous.

India suffered a similar rude shock when they were beaten 4-1 in the Carribean, that series saw the emergence of taylor as a quick strike bowler, Bravo revealed his slower one and Dwayne Smith made a come back as a golden arm dibbly dobbly bowler that Mudasser Nazar would be proud of and Windies play suits these conditions

Add to that Samuels in now in the groove and the return of Lara's form and double barrell openors in ChanderPaul and Gayle, this side is potent. Noe powell has raised his game though he still gives 4 balls, Windies pace agttack is getting more potent. And lara is more matured and determined at the helm and as fresh an artist with the bat as ever. His fine paddle for 4 was the shot of the day for me.

So All in All I agree with Kamran, these are early days Pakistan needs to regroup expecially for death overs and top order

Ahkmal was good in keeping and fell to a blinder catch from Bravo

Windies bowling and fielding was top class and they hardly gave extras

I believe Kanaria bowled well and Inzi should have given him another over he might of got D Smith Cheaply

Well Kamran you are absolutly right. This is very Embarrassing performance by Pakistan, as I said few weaks ago in my comments that Pakistan will suffer because of openers in the worldcup if they will not select the Sulaiman Butt in the squade, and will suffer in the bowling if they will not select the Mohammad Irshad in the squade, I dont have a too much experiance of cricket but according to my limited exposure i saw Mohammad Irshad in domestic matches and he have a great pace and also his action is very good which helps him to controle his line with the pace, but just leave it now we have to make the planing with our present team, well I think that pakistan must change some bating order in this tournament, I dont know weather I am right or wrong but in my openion Kamran Akmal must open with the imran Nazir, and younis must play at no6 and Shohaib Malik should play at no3 and inzimam at no4 and mohammad yousuf at no 5 hafeez should be in lower middle order, becuse after 30 overs the ball is abit old and hafeez's technique suggests that he can be a handy batsman at that possision, now i said that shohab malik should play at no 3 position becuse in Westindies the wickets are not very uneven and condition is similar to the subcontinent, and shohaib malik is a good player on subcontinent wickets, so he will be very useful to play at onedown position, Now coming towards the bowling I think that pakistan need to change the bowlers, they must give the rest to Rana Naveed, because his form with the ball is not very good, So they must play with the Mohammad Sami with umar gul and iftikhar unjum, and also Afridi should replace the kaneria, then it will be a good combination so in my openion

I agree with your discussion to a great extent. In terms of inclusion of Rana Naveed, it is beyond the understanding of a sane mind. Any lay man can tell you that common sense says that if a guy i s aliability to your team then dont play him, his bowling has been pathetic. Also i had heard that he is a very useful allrounder, well he failed to show that today again, Azhar should be in since he is a very useful all rounder and has proved that with performances with Pakistan in past and Surrey county in present.
Danish could have been a little unlucky, even though he bowled well and looked threatening but still failed to take a wicket. Im not a big supporter of Danish in ODIs but from watching his performance today i would have to say otherwise.
Of course the team needs Shahid Afridi since not only is he a decent spinner but also he has a habit of breaking partnerships. Also on his day he can make any attack in the world look ordinary, we all are aware of that.
Inzi and yousuf tried to steady the ship but especially Inzi looked too relaxed and slow, even when the run rate was climbing to an alraming level, Inzi and yousuf were vatting in no urgency. I agree that yes they had to steady the ship but at the same time players of their standard could have done a lot better than takin 7 runs in second power play.
Lets hope for the best for Pakistani team.

High hopes Kamran! Let's face it - this Pakistan team is nothing more than a lump of out-of-form shit. I feel hopelessness and despair supporting it. Each one of them, starting from Inzi (even a local county player could have scored faster than him), should be caned. PCB should sack these guys and build up a new team - even a brand new team cannot lose worse than this team has!

Kamram; your points are very valid. I beg pak team selectors to take control now then crying over split milk. Our team has talents to make final. Inzi go for it and make history.

Absolutely pathetic display of batting but i think the game slipped away from Pakistan during the last 5 overs when they conceded about 60 runs. Bowling was right on target for first 45 overs but Inzi made the mistake of not letting the spinners finish the job who pretty much had the West Indians by the throat. Instead Inzi reintroduced the pace, which helped the tail to throw a bat at everything to help themselves with a boundry or two. WI could have been restricted under 200 runs but unfortunately bowlers didn't go for the kill at the end.

Also, Younis Khan dropping Sarwan on 0 and he went on to score about 50 runs.
Pakistan should have had a backup opener in Hameed or even Farhat because Nazir is simply a wild card. After watching this game i am indeed conviced that this was the beginning of the end for Pakistan in this world cup.

And lastly Rana needs to carry the drinks for the rest of this tournament period.

Its the same old story , alot of expectations and yet not fullfilling it . What A SHAME ,What a disastorous start to pakistan world cup campaign ,cricket is all about passion and excitement but watching todays perfomance reminded of the vulnerability of pakistani team ,so exubarent but not thoughtfull .
For starters Inzi all got it wrong , after winning the toss he should have elected to bat first , in such a big event , especially when you are playing the opener but who will explain this to MIGHTY Inzi , sometimes i feel sorry for him , he was giving big remarks before the start of the match and yet could not lead pakistan to victory.

I had enough of giving ideas that what type of strategy should be adopted by pakistan , it will go down in the history of pakistani cricket team if Inzi listens to what the whole nation says .
Guys my advice to all of you is dont waste your time and money watching these lethargic athletes , i very much doubt if they can reach super eight after such dismall perfomance .

Kamran, get real, this is a hopeless Paki side. Javed Khan of Montreal "where are you hiding your face now dude"? get some ganja and charas, it will relieve your pain for today. Heartiest congratulation to Lara and company on their grand victory.

i just don't know why they changed the batting order from canada match. probably becuase younis didn't wanted to bat as an openner. if pakistan want to win the world cup they have attack from the front. our best players like younis, yousuf, and inzi has to play first. they have to come early in order to put pressure in the oposition side.

why in the world rana is in the team still. can't we just just give shabbir ahamd a chance in one day international. he is much much better than sami, and rana. it was good to see gul and rao bowling good but i think both kanaria and rana bowled rabbish and they should't be playing next match. i say for the next match drop kanaria and rana instead bring azhar and sami
pakistan should open with younis and nazir and then inzi has to play in number three and yousuf in four. we can't have our best batsman coming at number five when there is no one else left there to bat with him. younis, yousuf, and inzi they have to come and bat and attack from the front.

Pakistan needs to play with more Alrounders instead of bowlers, Sami should be included in place of Naveed ul Hassan, Afridi for Kaneria. Imran Nazir should be given another chance but he has to be careful about his shot selection. We need Boom Boom Afridi, Azhar mehmood should be given another chance as well in place of Rana or Kaneria. Kaneria is an ordinary bowler who does not make any difference to the team bowling.

well guys just forget the world cup, don't waste your time, this team is going nowhere?
I am looking forward what changes there could be after Pakistan after Pakistan going home after first round.
Can anyone guess?

Yea exactly...y wasnt Sami, Afridi and Azhar playing????? i thort Sami was the pick of the bowlers against the warm up game against SA and yet Rana played. Kaneria is not required... Pakistan have Afridi, Hafeez and Malik for spin options and i think Akmal should open the batting with Hafeez or be dropped and replaced as keeper by Younis Khan. I was so suprised at the team selection

well i am not too dissappointed cause i expected this from the Pakistani team and i see what you are trying to say Kamran but its not going to happen. This team does not have the potential....

I for one holding mine Kamran ! I still have the faith like millions around in this team.

I think if we bring back S Malik at one down position that will solve most of our batting problem. Malik was the key factor in winning one days in 2005. I think Yunis should be moved down the order for time being and kick him out from one day team after world cup.

There is no hope with this team. This world cup is over for Pakistan, and Bob woolmer knows it.

The defeat was self-inflicted. How?
1 - Win the toss and field on a perfect wicket?!!!
2 - Only a genius can explain continuous selection
of Rana Naveed. He is the biggest liability
on the team - but Inzy and his pal Mushtaq
think otherwise.
3 - Catches win matches - and Sarwan was let off
the 1st ball he faced - and Younis then showed
how to throw your wicket away!!!
4 - Inzy has a set mind...otherwise why take off
Hafeez & Kaneria when they were bowling well
and Rana obliged with a display of how to
bowl at the death!!!
5 - When playing against the host in the WC opening
you have to show a bit of big heart by giving
4 over- throws!!!

Kamran, I like your optimism...but it is better
Pakistan start preparing for the 2011 WC.
And can any one tell me which new batsmen Woolmer has produced in more than 2 years that he
has been coach. He continuously says there is ample talent. I want to know where is it?!!!
Mind you, Inzy, Younis and Yousuf are NOT his
products.

IF we had Azhar today I think we might have had a better chance I MEAN WHY IS DANI THERE NO SENSE. He is a waste of bat..

I have been saying all along that pack all eleven positions with batsmen as Pak keep losing wickets with a sluggish run rate. Also the selectors did a poor job not including Yasir Hameed as an opner and as you mentioned Mr. Abbasi not including enough batsmen/wicketkeeper. Well with the squad we have I'll choose all the batsmen, wicketkeeper, two bowlers (excluding Sami and Rana) and the rest allrounders. Still I wont give this Pakistan team, management and administration much of a chance.

well i have read everyone's comments and i think pakistan could have done better, but lets face it if us pakistani ppl don't support our team then the team won't even beant irland. and someone name (pakistani sucks) needs to change there name bcz i think when pakistan takes that world cup or make it to the semi finals ur mouth will be shut!!!!!!! we are not losers ppl. lets face it england has never won a world cup!! i mean we are a better team then england. so we can do it. and shut those ppls mouth who talk shit!!!!

Mr. Kamran, I am not sure if there is any hope for Pakistan or not... I would rather have india and Pakistan make it to the finals... I think Pakistan has real good players, but what it suffers from is (just like india) is over dependence on senior players... Australia is also falling in the same trap and given their arrogance, I really hope Scotland kicks their rear sides tomorrow ... I know --- fat chance --- .. anyway --- the key for India and Pak is to forget the Inziez, the Tendulkars, and get some young blood into the team .. ! I just did not see the resolve to play some attacking shots today .. ! I could see the rub rate climb and I was wondering when will they control it.. never happened... I am from india and I love a good match between the green and blue .. hopefully - 2007 will be the year of the subcontinent... !

kamran you are still living in dreamland world to say azher mehmood can perform. he is just picked bcoz of inzi's friendship nothing elese. he is used bullit. let me tell u this bob woolmer killed pakistan cricket with the help of inzi. i am 100% agree with u pakistan's odis power was their long batting lineup most the time in the history pakistan's batting was going to number 9 or 10 and today after six batsmen there was looooooooooooooong line of tailenders, i don't why too long tail. and i wana tell u one thing more sami is still crap. i know u will write about him that he didn't deliver well after the match, i am going to tell u before the match he will not deliver well in any match. his boulcing doesn't have any bounce same like rana.

if u wana pick the team pick like this way.
u can use hafeez at number 6 very well and can easy get from him usefull runs

yasir can bowl better than rana and adridi can bowl 200 times better than crap odi player danish kerneria.

kamran pick my this team and win all the next matches in the worldcup otherwise they need to go back and seelp in their homes for long rest.

pakistan is sick of woolmers coaching.

if anwer ali u19 bowler was here today he must have taken many wickets than crap rana.

i will beg to u and pakistan's coach, captain and management pls send back to keneria back to home in the first available flight.

Here is thought if Inzi wants to bat down the order why don't he just come at no9, that way his wish to bat down the order will be really fullfilled. I mean Capt is suppose to lead from front and there he goes total defensive mode and takes the whole team down with him and no one can any thing to him, why because he is too senior, screw that........ I really hope we don't make it to super 8 because i can't take this any more and keep my hopes up on the shoulders of this stupid capt. I rather not see Inzi play any more I really hope he get's injured really bad that he has to abondon the worldcup and may be some one else can lead this team I think we might have some chance. I have been saying it for a long time win or lose is part of the game but lose with respect at least show some fight but Inzi has just really disappointed me.

BOB Woolmer recently said he was happy with the Pakistani teams preparation for the wc. Bob surely is a guy who is happy with modest things in life.
I guess he is glad the margin of defeat was only 54 runs , and his genius plans avoided a bigger defeat.

Well i think our captain is tooooo lazy. He doesn't care. He thinks by telling his players to keep a beard will that solve everything.
No offense but its good they're religious but you have to perform as well.
We need a captain like PONTING or DRAVID, not a lazy person who only wants to perform when he wants to.
In 1992 everyone was scared of Imran Khan, because they knew what he was capable of if the players didn't perform.
On the other hand Inzi, no player cares because he can't do anything.

P.s All the selectors are being harsh on Azhar, only becuase he was close to Wasim Akram
Thats all - CHANGE THE CAPTAIN.

- I really dont understand why the hell Rana is still playing, this has been the worst bad patch I have ever seen in any fast bowler. Inzi likes him that why he is in the team..his presence now sucksss.
- Kaneria, the guy who has been playing cricket for about 6 -7 years and never been a part of the ODI team is playing the world cup, Can Izni , Wolmer and Selection committe explain this logic. He has never been a top class ODI bowler, neither a good fielder nor a batsman. Afridi is much better ODI bowler then him and we all know what can he do with the bat.
- Imran Nazir, never played international cricket for more than 2 years, played just one good innings in SA and now become an integral part of pakistani team....huuh. This guy has the worst techinque and yet plays as a specialist opener.. I dont know for how long we keep trying these crapy players.
- Yousuf and Inzi should come up. Younus needs to be more consistant in ODIs. Afridi, azhar and sami/yasir arafat should replace kaneria, rana and imran nazir...
But I would say that this WC is not gona be much different then 2003.

The West Indies played well today. This is the sort of performances that West Indians want to see from our players. We want to see some fight and that is what they showed today.Hafeez and the Younis Khan gave away their hands and Yousuf and Inzaman gave the match to the west indies with their slow batting....newayz the west indies play well today and I hope they continue to play this way.

Tuesday, March 13 2007--Death of Pakistan Cricket

RIP

I am an ardent fan of Pakistani cricket but this team is stretching my patience to the limit. I think the most important thing to note here is that how bleak the future of Pakistani cricket is? We have absolutely no new batting or bowling talent. We are playing losers like Naved, Sami, Hafeez, Nazir and the worst thing is that we have no other choice. Unfortunately these are the only people out there or atleast that the impression selectors have given us. It is truly abysmal to see such a weak Pakistani team in the worldcup. I wish they lose in the first round and spare us of this torture.

Rana Naved is badly out of form...his selection remains a mystery and a huge suprise...Mohammed Sami remains consistently inconsistent...I feel Ifthikar justified his selection and really played well...As for Kaneria, he has been desperate to try and cement his place in the one day line up yet fails to show the venom he displays in the Test Arena...Yousuf at No. 3 and inzy at No. 4 would provide more Stability i feel...as for the opening pair...one word...HOPELESS...id give them till the super eights..if they dont perform....Nazir should be out...Hafeez and Malik should open...As for Pakistans chances..LETS ALL PRAY

Pakistan is one team that would always need a wakeup call. This loss will be a wake up call. This team has the full potential and the skill to beat even a team like Australia. Batting: Imran Nazir can blast any bowler. Mohammad Hafeez can stick around for a while. Mohammed Yousuf and Inzamam can play big patient innings. Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi can fire any time. If this combination works in any form it will be enough to beat any side any day. WE WILL NEVER COUNT YOU OUT PAKISTAN

Well put Kamran! The fact is that the team has no form of stability nor reliability. I agree with you in regards of rana naveed. He is a pathetic and costly bowler. Sami and Azhar's absence is a slap in the face and PCB's unintuitive decisions.
Pakistan's future in this world cup is like the U.S pulling out of Iraq!

As much as i believe Bob Woolmer to be a decent coach, i'm disgusted with the decision to play Shoaib Malik at no.6. Arguably he's been Pakistan's best batsman in odi's in recent years. This is a guy who started out at number 11 and yet still averages 33.92 (119 inns, 5x100, 21x50). Compare this to Younis Khan's average of 31.42 (144 inns, 2x100, 26x50). Clearly Malik is the better batsman in this form of the game, yet woolmer is trying to meet the needs of Younis when the more consistent Malik should be allowet to bat at no.3. He's won the team many more ODIs than Younis has. What use is his current position where he is constantly asked to achieve the impossible after the failures of others? And what exactly is Naved ul Hasan still doing in the team? Yasir Arafar or Azhar Mahmood would be far more useful. Last year Sussex were disappointed to get Rana back at the end of the season because Arafat was performing far better in both forms of the game. Ul-Hasan has not been the same player for about nine months and he is taking his place purely on reputation!

Javed Khan from Montreal mentioned the other day that the if the Indian medicore bowling attack could wipe out the WI batting ,Pakistan could do better. Well I guess if Indian attack is medicore,Pakistans attack is exceptionally better......ummm well I guess it my fault at not understanding.He must have meant better for the opposition teams I guess.

Less than 48 hours ago, you were all praise for the team, backing them to win the WC. Now, you don't want to eat your words, but at the same time criticize half the team for not performing. Where are your WC winners going to come from? Why don't you also suggest packing and sending half the team back home and bring new troops?
Accept the fact that this team is not capable of winning the WC but accidents do happen in Cricket, so theoratically there is a chance that they can win.
Of course now some people will say that Afridi was missing and Sami was not playing. About a fortnight ago, Sami was not even in the squad. Afridi is always hit and miss. The fact is Pak lost it because of top 3 batsmen and there is no replacement, given Inzy's refusal to take responsibility. I bet we will see Afridi open again in this tournament and it will not work and then he will be dropped again !! Imagine, the WI team beat Pak w/o Lara, Gayle and Chanderpaul firing and they needed no more than 5 bowlers (including two part-time bowlers). Now think of whats waiting in other teams.

Sure, hope never dies ! Keep faith but stop day dreaming !

Akmal, Hafeez and Rana need to be dropped for Afridi, Sami and Azhar. Younus (or anyone for that matter) can keep as well as Akmal.

1.Kamran Akmal should open.
2.Inzi should bat up the order.
3.Afridi to be included in the team no matter what.
4. Rana should be dropped - everyone knows his death over tactics by now.

The truth is that Pakistan have always been useless gibberish, these people need to get out of there own arses and listen to what the fans are saying. I mean Ranas been playing like dog for months now and he still hasnt been axed, why do they keep starting him?! and Inzi that buffalo's too lazy to come in at no.3 or 4 even though hes our best batsman, its a shame. Whenever our batting clicks our bowling doesnt: thats the pakistan team summed up for you, a useless bunch of idiots.

The world cup is over, even if this useless sloth of team gets through to the next stage they will be at a serious disadvantage since the points are carried through.

I dont know why i wasted my time watching these idiots today even though i knew what was going to happen. Pakistan have always been like this, and they will carry on being like this.

Dont waste your time over them people, now then back to football.

I am Guyanese, so I am glad WI won. My dear Pakistani friends, please don't lose hope. As I recall Imran's winning team had a terrible start to Pakistan's only WC victory. Hopefully, they can squeeze into the next round and they will have him back by then. By the way...what's up with your coach (Woolmer) disrespecting Pakistan's chances by openly saying that S.A., Aus., and N.Z., are all better teams? Even if it's true, that has to put a dent on his players confidence. The Pak. board should have sacked him immediately after he made those remarks. Good Luck. I hope Pak does well, but I want my Windies to win it all.

It was scary show off from Pakistani cricket team today. I believe there was no team plan, no spirit and some of players were just happy to be the part of national team participating in worldcup2007. Whole team was lacking in enthusiasm and discipline. Other than that I would like to mention some points here

Danish Kaneria:
Believe me he is still a school fellow who should play enough cricket to get to that level of maturity. His fielding, bowling and on top of all his reactions!!! Just Sucks

Imran Nazir:
I don’t know why Iman doesn’t have temperament and concentration. The way he is playing he only deserve to play super six tournaments. Please some one should teach him and make him understand that he is playing at international level. How hard it is to play a front foot drive to the half volley?

Rana Naveed:
Honestly he needs to go for rehabilitation. He is not a bad bowler but he is just not in his rhythm and one shouldn’t try him and help him to gain it back in important events. Not in world cup at least.

Inzama-ul-Haq:
I have no doubt Inzi is master player but he still needs to learn the tactics of captaincy. He needs to do his home work and get in the ground with plan A, B and C. I am trying to find an answer that why he can’t push himself and bat at number three. One shouldn’t make it an ego problem that everyone is saying so I don’t have to do.

Beautiful game of cricket is sports but we need real professionals to manage and play this game otherwise things are not far where we will see the standard similar to what we have in hockey.

I am an Indian supporter - but I do not think Pak is as bad as it is made out to be here. If Pak makes just these 2 changes I think they would be a handful Rana out - Azhar in and Kaneria out - Afridi in. Akmal is not keeping well these days but I do not think Younis would be any better.

Not forgetting that they just beat the beat rated team at the moment - south africa in the warm up game, pakistan have alot of work to do. Or did they just have a bad day today??

My personal opinion for today is that the captain is partly to blame for some poor decisions, why Inzi gave each bowler a long spell rather than rotate the bowling and keep the batsmen thinking I cant understand.. especially in the case of Rana Naved, who should have been taken off straight away.

If we are going to look for positives.Then the only one which stands out in my mind. Is the performance of Shoaib Malik.

This may not be the most naturally gifted batsmen.He has certainly got the mental toughness.

In the words of the Late great Boxing coach Cus D`Amato. " A hero Is someone who is able to handle fear. Rather then being consumed by it.He is actually able to use his fear of failure as motivation. And to help raise his performance."

Or in the legendary words of muhammad Ali "A champion is created from something deep inside. A desire, A vision, An unrelenting determination..."

Our team is full of guys who are unable to deal with the pressure of the big stage. I certainly feel for them. Unfortunately I dont think guys such as Nazir, Kaneria have a very long future.

Today was the epitome of unpredictable. I truly think Pak's relationship with its fans is the curse of the "stockholm syndrome". They've sucked of late, but when they produce to their talant, we love them. But generally, they've sucked, no doubt about that. I'm a firm beleiver in shoab, the big three, kaneria, and now umar and rao. They've got true talent. But despite their usual lack of bringing out their talent, I'm totally enthralled when they do pull one out, and for some reason I always believe they will. I really hope you're right, Kamran. But yes, please leave out Rana for now; he's not good for the team's chemistry.

this is un belevble that inzi select boyz like rana who bad luck since he return why inzi keep out sami i dont belive my openion is azar mehmood and hafeez should open the innings 3rd will be inzee 4th yosuf 5t yonis 6th malik 7th afridi,8th sami 9th rao iftikahar,10th yasir arfat 11th daish aur rana no place for kamran akmal yonius khan will hendle more better then him

Kaneria must be persisted with as should any wicket taking bowler. Azhar Mahmood or Mohammad Sami must replace Rana Naved. Afridi must open. Getting him to bat late is a very defensive ploy as is everything that Inzy does. But i hope that these changes happen after Pakistan has lost its match with India ;-)

It won't be easy for Pakistan to sort this out before super 8's. Next two games are easy wins and Pakistan should not be appreciated if they manage to win against minnows. There are quite a few things wrong with this team. Inzimam's captaincy is just amazingly horrible. Kaneria has never been used properly and it's not fair to him. We could've had Windies all out within 150 had Inzi decided to attack rather than become defensive. I have no clue why Hafeez is being given a chance again and again! He cannot play! Period! I hope Inzi's only excuse to keep him in the team is the absence of Afridi. Sami should've played. Rana should be rested.

Please dont blame Danish Kaneria though. You never gave him chances in One day Games and bring him directly for WC !!

Some people on here who are criticizing fans for not supporting their team should really get a life. Pakistan team has done nothing to earn our respect! They've always let us down. Inzi should realize his defensive strategy will never win him big games!

This has to be the weakest pakistan side ever, to go into a world cup tournament, largely due to the fact shoaib akthar, mohammed asif, abdul razzaq being left out due to injury, and shahid afridi being banned for first 2 games. These are 4 potential match winners almost half the team! and they cant play!! If you look in the side that played today, there was about 5 players that stand out as match winners on their day, - Inzi, yousuf, younis, shoaib malik, umar gul, you need 11 match winning players, thats why australia have done well in the past and dominated for years.

I think the only team Pakistan can beat regularly is itself time and again. How can you say that it was a good bowling performance when they were whacked for almost 10 an over in last 10 overs. I don't think this team and this Captain has it in them to reach the Semis.

Dear Kamran,I agree with you that this team has the talent and the potential to usurp the best team on any given day but the likelihood of that actually happening (outside of a patriotic Pakistani's dream) is anywhere between nought and zero. And the reason: a team leader devoid of cricketing sense. It's the story of Pakistan's eternally static society where religious fervor is considered a substitute for technical knowledge and skill. It may be that Inzy is targeting higher glories than the earthly World Cup. So, just sit back and relax,Allah will guide this team.

But getting down to the nitty-gritty of today's game, I fail to see any logic in anything this team management does, including team selection, strategy etc. etc. Cricket is such a mind game, and our team management so mind-boggled at the time. And the fact that the coach openly writes off his own team by claiming SA as his favourite team fits perfectly into this directionless team leadership.

Dear Kamran:
1. Rana is a hard worker, he has my sympathy, but the World Cup needs a bowler who is in form, and right now, he has totally lost his confidence, and is asking to be put out of his misery!!
2. I WILL place all the blame on Inzamam and Woolmer...if the coach and captain cannot be held responsible, then who will you hold accountable...the TOOTH FAIRY??
3. Sami is your fastest bowler, and he cannot possibly bowl any worse than Rana...
4. Knowing Inzi mulla, he is probably regretting not replacing Asif and Shoaib with Maulana Fazl ur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmad.....and a word of advice to cricketers from Karachi... grow a beard, the longest, bushiest one that you can grow... that is your ONLY chance... it is still a snowballs' chance in hell, but it is your only option....
5. And finally, if the World Cup was being played in Raiwind, you probably would end up being right..since it is not, I would recommend that you buy lots and lots of your favorite dressing....you will be eating your words and IT WILL NOT GO DOWN EASY, AND IT WILL NOT GO DOWN FAST...
P.S. Kamran, just how exactly did you get your neurons zapped up this bad?!!!

IMHO, a bowler must be smart. I have always found rana chachu to be a very dumb one. He just gets lucky from time to time. Batting order must be changed as you said.

Swap Shoaib Malik with Imran in batting order.

Rana is a big problem. Inzamam and Woolmer just keep on saying big words. Their wins in the warm up was just a warm up to start loosing. Until Inzi starts thinking about team instead of his friendship with Rana we can not win. All 3 Inzi, YOunis and sorry Yousuf also seem to be scared of new batsmen that why Pakistan has not established any new batsman since Inzi took over. Rana should be out of the team not for long but forever.

i don't know why i m still writing about them.they completely disheartened and disappointed me today.i don't have any hope but why in the world cant woolmer and inzi not get there best available players on the field.On such small grounds playing kaneria is big risk caz even mistimed shots wud go for sixes and yyyy azhar did nt play is still a mystery.Azhar is a good player of pacers and cud have given malik useful support towards the end.Sami did well in warm up against south africa and for some reason they still selected rana who i think is paying money(rishwat) to be in the team.Yasir being dropped from the 15 told again today caz he is a steady opener especially on low tracks he can be effective.A shameful performance and kamran bahi with this selection and opening we might even not get to the super 8s.i just want to be able to somehow forget this team and move on but it is easier said than done.

As much as it hurts to see Pakistan losing the World Cup opener, we have to accept this team was never good enough to make it to the final four and we will have to contend with a few loses here and there. As for all the cricket gurus suggesting changes in strategy i believe no radical changes are required. Maybe Sami should come in for Rana - thats all.
As for abandoning hope - well being a pakistani supporter i think we all know inside of what our boys can do and some of us only 'pretend' to lose hope. Remember '92? We were only better than SL in that WC.

Well how can a team expect anythiig except laziness from the captain,who is so lazy that he has no inclination and time to even shave his beard or atleast trim it..Well I gues he is busy in EAT, SLEEP and SLEEP IN GYM

Kamran Abbasi asks"Rana's selection was inexplicable. Somebody needs to explain it though."
There is nothing to explain. The glorious beard explains it all.

1. Pakistan were out-foxed today. Today was the first time in many matches that neither Samuels or Gayle bowled a single ball. It is possible that Inzi and Yousef were playing for the spin(slow) bowlers to come in the attack. When it did not it happen it was too late. Pakistan is still a very talent team.

2. Shoaib Malik should bat higher in the order period. Either as an opener or before Inzi/Akmal. He needs to be groomed. Truth be told, today, by time he came to the crease today West Indies were not to bothered they were prepared to get the tailenders as they did.

3. Don't read too much to West Indies low scores. They did it same thing last year in the ICC Champions Trophy preliminaries but yet still reached the final.

4. Yonnis Khan gave his wicket away but the others was the result of great team bowling. All the bowlers did well and Lara used them fairly well.

Am from India. It's interesting to the see the reaction to this loss among the supporters of Pakistan. Their team needs to be given a break. It's just the first match and there is a long way to go. Reminds me of how we over-reacted in 2003, when India lost to Australia in the group stages.
And Pakistan has some awesome batting firepower. Once their bowling settles in, Kamran is right, they can take on any team.

As far as i know there is no left batmans in the pakistan side this is clearly a draw back to the team i think they should have chosen from butt of farhat instead of nazir because 1 of them is a left hand bats man left and right combination for opening is better then just a 1 dimentional right hand combination
Inzimam should come in at 4 bring kamran akmal in opening with nazir worth giving a try since kamran has been failing to deliver in key moments for pakistan. Danish kaneria is always a gamble the guy needs to play all group stages to give him confidence trust me the pitches in west indies are ideal for spin. I believe the positives in the match was that shoaib malik played good ! roa iftikar bowled brilliant so did umar gul only improvement they need is in the later stages when they bowl kick out naved and bring in geniune pace with sami he can bowl the 90+ range which is vital for any team australia have gone with shaun tait because of that and india have got munaf patel. Shahid Afridi will come back in the team which physciologicaly will give pakistan a upper hand i will bring afridi in opening with akmal worth a try? pakistan needs to give some batting chances to tail enders in nets. They need to take catches coz they win matches. The PLUS FOR PAKISTAN HAS BEEN RAO IFTIKAR THE GUYS GOT EXCELLENT LINE LENGTH !!!

aoa

hey dont give up on your team yet, remember the 92 cup, we got thrashed by nearly every team, but we still managed to come out on top. Its the early stages there is still hope. Look at tomarow not yesterday and pray for the team since it represents you!

All said and done, I guess I'll react the same way if India loses!

Now i understand, after losing so many games, how come Pak team does not get it? I beleive they are also hallucinating like this writer, that Australia is the only team they cannot beat. However, the latest buzz in Pakistan is that today's match was fixed as Pakistan wanted to let Windies win their inagural world cup game.To maintain 'brotherly relations' with Windies. I thought Musharraf was the only one hallucinating when he declared her in US that Pakistanis speak better english than Indians. It seems the whole country is on charas .

Ok to sum it up, even with Pakistan's recent abysmal performane in those 3-4 months, I expected them to beat WI's. That practice match with SA was a far away ray of hope. There was one thing missing today, apart from cricket common sense and motivation i mean, and that was professionalism. That is found in Aussies and SA etc. Younis and Openers sold their wickets at discount to the Carribeaners. Malik for one more time very impressive, Rana Naveed has privately sworn to maintain a 5 per over average. Kaneria is a homeopathic medicine, no use no harm.

All in all, Pakistani team does know we are mules, we will stick with them at every juncture, they win we clap, they lose we curse. So what can we do, I just hope they show the world their big one too. I am disappointed, but have not dispensed hope. Good Luck

I just don't understand tum log kis mitti kay bane hue ho. Simple thing does not register your head. The game was a curtain raiser and it showed that Pakistan was not even having a side that should have been in this WC 2007. Kamran, mujhe aap se ek sawal karna hai. Kya yeh zaroori hai ki gade huye murde ukhado. Everyone in this cricket world knew beforehand that this Pakistani team was not even on par with 7 other test playing nation. With Shaoib, Asif, Razzaq and Afridi you cannot make any headway and without them you should have, in the interest of Pakistan team, seen to it that this side had played in the ICC league to get better match practice. You are singling out that this player is not good and that player should be dropped. Frankly speaking in which department you were good? NONE. You guys think your bowling was good. No way. The pitch in West Indies are not like the pitches in Pakistan or Australia wherein you can score 300+ with ease. Your mediocre attack was lucky not to have been thrashed for a bigger score. Because Windies knew that any score of 200+ was good enough to defend. If you see my comment on your previous blog, I had already written that the four players listed above are your main bowlers who bowl 75 to 80% of the overs. In their absence these bowlers did well to restrict the West Indies under 250 which in itself is a big achievement. So don't blame the bowlers. The fielding was PATHETIC. The bowling in the slog overs was taken to the cleaners with the last 10 overs yielding 85 runs. After the first 40 overs it was 156 for 3 which was 3.9 per over. That is where Inzamam erred. He got complacent. The bowling became wayward, fielding less said the better. The captain was thinking that a score of under 250 is easy to chase and relaxed in his approach. Windies literally gained from that point. Imagine a No.11 never hitting a six in ODI getting one off the last delivery. So that sums up your 50 overs in the field. Now the batting. You have the worst opening pair in the ODI. Why cry? You must have jumped when Nazir got a six of the second ball. Is this the way you chase?? The batsman has to first set. You are not playing a 20 over game. You pay the price. Next ball you are in the pavilion. Yousuf and Inzamam were so slow that the run rate only mounted. But they were still ahead in the run rate when the 100 was reached. That is where the team took different paths. West Indies consolidated from that point and Pakistan capitulated. From 99 for 3 to 116 for 6. The tail starts there and your requirement was mounting leaps and bounds. Malik just chanced his arms and was fortunate to get 62 runs. But overall the performance was deplorable and not worthy of team competing for the World Cup. You guys don't learn from mistakes. Yes, the remaining two games are with minnows and I am quite positive that unless Pakistan changes its tactics the return journey could be as early as March 21 which is about 7 to 8 days from now. Good luck and stop criticizing the players after they have performed. If you have the guts make the management select players who are worthy of world cup standard. If not, just watch.

Guys, no worries: Pakistan is going ALL THE WAY!!!!

All the way home that is.

I (much like a lot of other cricket fans) have no clue WHY on earth is Rana in the squad?

I recokn we'll make it to the Super 8 but honestly; this is not a world-cup winning squad. Also with no presence of Akhtar, Asif and Razzaq; this team has already faced a serious set-back.

Afridi: you can never really trust his batting.

It was by no means a good bowling performance; they completely lost it in the end when it matters.

guys, inzi at 3? 4? 5? how abt 11! The man is too defensive, he thinks everything would just happen by itself if they bat out 20 or so overs without scoring a run. Malik should b promoted up. Stick with Nazir and hafeez. Out goes Kaneria, whether Afridi is back or not, and Azhar for Rana. I also believe that Akmal should b dropped and younis should keep! he has done it before and it's not like he can't handle pak's current super pacy bowling!?!!

Guys dont be upset look at the bright side we have a team that lost to possibly the weakest team in super 8 with a less then 5 runs /over to chase on good batting track.
We cant blame any one the whole team has an aura of defeated attitude. For all pak criket fans keep ur expectations low maybe this is how good we are just above bangladesh or zimbabwe. Inz & co lack the conviction of winners. Poor selection bad batting poor fielding mediocere bowling. In the nothing fails like failure & nothing succeeds like success.As far as inz & co possibly better in tableeq then cricket.

I have nothing to comment ... I can't agree with you anymore today !

whats the point of going to super eight when u know that you aint gona win any matches over there?

Kamran Akmal kept pretty well I thought, and Umar Gul was the pick of your bowlers. Kaneria bowled well...in one-day cricket you're going to get hit, but he stuck to his guns I think. As far as your batting order is concerned, I think you should pick two openers and stick with them...give them a long run, even if they fail sometimes, because you have to give them experience. After all, even Saeed Anwar and Amir Sohail started from somewhere. In the meantime, you shouldn't expect much from your openers, so the middle order should put their hand up. I think your big three got starts but couldn't convert them, and Younis Khan was out to a rank indiscretion. Inzamam should definitely move up the order, and Younis should be in the lower-middle order because in my opinion he can be more devastating at the death. Shoaib Malik played well and he should be persisted.

Why should we be confident in pakistan's hopes when even the coach has given up?. How pathetic were his words when he said his personal favorites to lift the World Cup are the South Africans. I'm flabbergasted.

Kamran, you took the words out of my mouth.
While I still strongly believe that losing to West Indies and dented our chances almost completely, if we are to see any light at the end of the tunnel, changes have to be made, and made soon. Changes will give the team new belief and create new fear in the oppositions eyes, something that teams watching Pakistan will have lost on this performance.

immediate changes:

1) Nazir out (not proven) - thrown in too last minute.
2) Rana out - how many more chances??
3) Danish out - way too risky in one day cricket, especially in one day format.

Replacements:

1) Afridi - will match or better Danish kanerias figures any day with the ball. Is a trump card with the bat.....especially when the chips are down.
2) Azhar Mehmood - is a more diciplined bowler than Rana. Also adds extra depth to the batting.
3) Sami - any bowler bowling in the 90's will add some kind of threat to batsmen. We must look more destructive with our bowling attack.

Good Luck boys........you'll need it.

Somebody forward this to Bob Woolmer for me.

Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.
Time can break your heart, have you begging please, begging please.

Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure,
And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.

Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on,
'Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven.

No doubt it was an embarrassing performance but remember Pakistan started the same way in 1992 but even worse in some matches especially against England (73 all out however thanks to rain). Luck favored them then but it may not happen this time. Because Imran has courage to sit best bowler Waqar out while may be Inzamam is trying to so same by sitting Sami out however blunder is to play Rana. Poor lad is out of form and confidence and badly needs break.. Send him home!!!!!!!! Hey what about the Hugs Sami was receiving from Woolmer.. Does this means he is worth nothing after those hugs?????? If so, Woolmer please give one to Rana!!!!!

"Posted by: irfan safdar shah at March 14, 2007 12:50 AM
Pervaiz Musharraf is the root of all problems"

I couldn't agree more!

I bunked work to see Team Pakistan give yet another shambolic display.Kamran,you are being over optimistic.Everything with this team is in disarray and even super eight round looks like a dream.Even if they do they are in for a serious whopping by all the other 7 teams.Imran Nazir is a gali cricketer and will never progress.Younis played such an erratic stroke,you had to see it to believe it.Inzi and Yousuf played as if they were playing for their lives both extra cautious.Kamran did what he does best and Rana sums up this team.I think I wasted spending 200$ to watch our team.

I am a cricket lover and this proves just a few things :
1. If you dont pick deserving people the moral of the team decreases and it cant win. This is what ahppened to england inashes. Openers like salman Butt and Yasir hammed were left out for likes of Imran and so we dont have any openers.
2. Any victory we have with Asif and Shoib in team is tainted. they are a disgrace for the nation and nned to serve the ban.
3. Inzimam should lead from the front batting at No3 or 4 not below that
4. Bob is a failed coach. Has not produced a single match wining palyer in two years or a decent series win. He nneds to be fired.
4. The wicket keeping is extremely pooor> we need to look for a new batsman wicketkeeper.
I dont think that we have what it takes to be world champions so instead of getting frustated just enjoy the cricket from the best teams namely australia, SA, India, west Indies, Sri Lanka and England. We rank among bangladesh and Zimbawe only capable ofproducing an upset on one of our days.
Enjoy the cricket anf forget the pakistan team

well! All I want to say that Inzi has to lead this young team from front, and I dont know why they played Rana instead of Sami. I think Sami should have played in this match after his magnificent performance against SA other day and they should have play Afridi instead of Danish. But there is nothing to be panic because we still got two matches which inshAllah Pakistan is going to win, all the best to Pakistan.

I am amused with your authentic comment except Australia,Pakistan can beat all other teams. For your kind info, which you also should be knowing in the recent few games and months, West Indies, England, South Africa and Newzeland all have proved Australia is down the hill and beatable. Can you explain why you consider Pakistan can't beat Australia while other teams are easily beatable. I would say that without Shoaib and Asif their bowling is as weak as Australia and I am pretty sure, India, Srilanka, Australia and Newzeland would love to beat them with this bowling.

Selection changes in the bowling department is not the answer because the fact of the matter is that there is not much depth in the bowling department at the moment. Besides, this loss cannot be blamed on the bowlers since 241 was not a challenging total to chase.

The primary reason why Pakistan lost the match was that Inzi and Yousuf (and Yousuf in particular) adopted a high-risk batting strategy in the middle-order. The top order had collpased, so the strategy that was adopted by these two batsman was to play defensive and see off the quick bowlers and then get stuck into the medium pacers. On the face of it, it seems like a low-risk strategy but it was high-risk in the sense that there was little margin for error once the medium-pacers came on. Luck went against Pakistan and Inzi and Yousuf failed to execute on their plans. It's not the first time that Pakistan has lost a match in this fashion - I can recall several occassions on which Yousuf has adopted a similar strategy and not been able to pull it off. Although I can recall severall occassions on which he has pulled it off and that's why he is known for being one of the best pacers of a one-day innings.

So really, the loss cannot be blamed on any fundamental flaw. Rather, it was a case of bad luck. Besides, it's not like the opposition was weak.

I would agree with Kamran Abbasi "it's better to lose now and peak later"...Don;t forget Pakistan won one of its first five matches in WC 1992 but then went on to win the last five including semifinal & final. Australia too, started pathetically in 1999 but then went on to beat South Africa and Pakistan. Pakistan used to be the best team in the world at that time, despite losing out to Bangla Desh.

Changes in the line up must be made immediately. Imran Nazir, Mohd. Hafiz, Younus Khan, Mohd. Yousuf, Inzi, Shoaib Malik, Afridi (as soon as the ban is over), Azhar Mahmood, Mohd. Sami, Rao Iftikhar, Umar Gul.

Yes, No Kamran Akmal. I agree the qulaity of keeping and batting Kamran Akmal is doing, Younus Khan can do match it if not exceed it.

Also, the way Yousuf & Inzi batted was too slow and played too many dot balls.....I don;t know if it was because they were out of form Or if they were afraid of something or have had a DEFENSIVE mind-set. Whatever, it was, they need to get rid of it and soon!

Last but not the least, remember, you can still win the match on the last ball of the game, even if a sixer is required. The key is not to loose hope until the last ball.

I know most of the people won't agree with me, in fact many would be angered but we have to remember that sometimes the REAL battle is fought inside human minds and not on the battle field....Our players have to believe in themselves and we have to beleive in them...

Anger and disaapointment represent my feelings when sitting in China , having no access to broad cast, i atay awake the whole night to follow the match on internet and see such a dismal performance by Pakistan team.I think poor captaincy cost us around 30 to 40 runs.kaneria must have been given a break when he was being thrown for runs.Rana must not have been brought in after going for more than 5 runs an over in first spell.Had this target been closer to 200 it could have been a different scene altogether. lastly, i am sure they would strike back. Azhar may be a better choice than struggling Rana.

Oh Mr Abbasi, Australia is biggest hurdle right. But before that there is a minor hicupp like Ireland,Zimbabwe,NZ,ENG,IND,SA,SL on the road to a match with incredible Aussies. Lets see what happens with these minor hicupps which we will likely blow away based on the performance against WI. Afterall the performance was top class today with the captain leading from the front,the batsman playing with great application and in great form and finally the world class bowling which blew away the opposition,not to mention the exceptional fielding and the catches taken by our fielders,and of course our fantastic opening pair.
I am damn sure all other teams in the WC must be shivering at the prospect of meeting Pakistan,and surely the Indians must be having nightmares already about facing us,especially since they are in such awful form with all their bowlers out of form and their batsman hardly getting any score.

I would blame selectors for selecting incompetent batsmen, our openers lack techniques to play and stay at wickt. Our opening batsmen can not even last five overs. The chances that Pakistan qualify for super 8 seems very remote. I certainly believe Shoaib Malik should do opening. Azhar should be given chance for Rana

Kamran , won't lych you but you really are being less than pragmatic optimist here.

The bowling and feildind were okay given the lack of depth of West Indian batting.

The batting as has always been the case case for centuries was the main source of failure. Given the temperament of most of our batsmen .it is difficult to say if they can consistently score just 200 runs for the next five innings. Now this is the state of affairs. Bob Woolmer has been a complete failure as a coach not one iota of improvement in the team.In hind sight atleast Javed Miandad was not a dumb fuck like this guy.

Rana : Great bowler out of form , lack of energy and confidence ...perhaps needs rest ..possible replacements Sami or Azhar.

Kamran Akmal : Let him play but on a leash, can't let him get comfortable or he will start dropping catches again.

Kaneria : Should play him against all teams except WI.We saw how Brain Lara thrashed his bowling in the previous series.

No further changes needed ..lets not get carried away.

Now to all those top order batsmen ..we can consider human brain transplant for them. That is the only possible solution to their dumb and dick headed shot selections. Younis and Hafeez practically gifted their wickets to WI. Now ,do these guys listen to the coaching staff ..I m sure they were told to have some discipline in their batting.

To conclude ..my fellow Pakistanis ..don't expect anything from this team to avoid depression . Watch all games as if they were club cricket games and root for the opposition.Maybe this team is as good as its performance against WI.*s*

Mr. Abbassi, you are supposed to induce thought provoking discussions. Cracking corny jokes won't help your reputation.

Why no one is talking about Imran Najir's performance ? Is he fit for the opening ! Should promote Shoaib Malik to opening in place of Najir. Najir,Rana and Kaneria should be dropped and Imran Farhat, Ajhar Mahmood and Sahid Afridi should be in the Team. I will also go for Sami in place of Anjum. this will be the attacking team not the current defensive team !!!!

what the heck was pakistan doin yesterday. i got sick when keneria bowled got smack of his life. who elected keneria to the team linup he is a test bowler in one days, there should be no place for him . bring afridi back for keneria and bring azhar mahmood for imran nazir. imran nazir plays ver unprofesionally in world cup. he is excelent fielder but he needs to learn batting . i wil like to see shoaib malik and hafeesz openiing and and want to see four pace bowler Rao iftikar, umar gul, azhar mahmood and mohammed sami . and three spinners, shaid afridi , mohammed hafees, shoaib malik. i hate pakistan in this world cup. some players build the pressure annd then some come to bowl and give away runs..

I think you are just trying to stress the fact that Pakistan shouldn't lose hopes and still hang on to that rope which is not strong enough to carry our chance weight. In other words Kamran you are living in a dream world :)Our team has been demolished by other cricket boards, they've been planning it all along, and they've been successful at doing so. I was disguisted to see how pathetic and helpless our team has become now as comparing it to 1990s team.
Thank you. Have a good day

relax guys, i think this excessive reading into games is not doing sub continent teams any good. i guess at this level, as azharuddin once said, players should be responsible and in most of the cases they are (except perhaps azhar himself). no one plays to loose. but i must confess, as i went to sleep, i was sure pak would have reached this total with 5 wickets in hand; and i am tad dissapointed with the results. i would like to see any team (and i wish that it is india) other than australia get this cup.

What's more, Pakistani fans are just like us Indian fans...ready to trash their team one day, and then praise it the next. We should all learn to have patience with our players...after all, they're human, and IT'S ONLY A GAME.

Folks, what can I say
This team can kick some butt only and only if they bring a major change and I MEAN MAJOR CHANGE. Rana is an oxy moron. He has become a disgrace for pakistan and his team. I will blame others later but this moron cuased us loose against India last year, against SA and now he was allowed to play in a major event liek world cup? I dont blame Rana for that if he will be asked to bowl then he will bowl but who i the bigger moron asking him to bowl??? (Go Figure). Younus for God sake stop trying to hit wide balls you have lost your wicket 3rd time. Inzy said he will be playing at 4?? what happened to that? Bowling was awesome based on what we had except for Rana. Sami should have played this game and those you didnt included him shall be punished and fined. Yes there is still hope but if I was not pakistani I would have voted for Ireland who is making their best efforts in all of their games.
Just like General Niazi 1971, leaders like inzy can cause big damange to some real talent. He cannot be a good captain during crises period. If he was playing for any other country he would have been out of the team or at least wont allowed to lead the team. May Allah Help them. Ameen.

Here we go again! Tell you what they will win and then loose and then win. No CONSISTENCY!. BUT I still BELIEVE! because they are inconsistent and they can still come back as " Cornered Tigers". The talent is immense and there. Just need little application and strategy. Gosh it sounds like I and we all in this blog know a whole lot more than the team and its management! Sounds pretty high and mighty as we are just blogging!! But as we are so I will say this much:
If Akmal plays and that he should now that we do not have much choice, make him open the innings with Hafeez.

Better eat your words now Kamran, than later when we would either have been thrashed in the first round itself or later by most of the test playing nations. Thinking of Inzamam coming at no.3 is unrealistic and unfair- there is a batting order at which he has proved himself in the past and let him continue. Anyway the earlier he comes (and gets out to the swinging deliveries) the quicker the holes in the team will be exposed. Sami, yes he needs to be back, he cant do worse than Rana. And the keeper is becoming an embarassment. As for being one batsman short, I think akmost all the teams have erred in this regard by taking too many bowlers and not providing cover for one of their batsmen going totally out of form. If Pakistan has to have a realistic chance, some one will have to stand up and give a good performance. NO use comparing this team with that of Imran Khan, there is a great difference in quality- which cannot be made up by spirit- which anyway is lacking.

I hope your are right Kamran. This was just the first match and hopefully we will beat the weaker teams in our pool and go to Super 8 and shine there.
But what I really found lacking today was a sense of purpose, urgency and exceitement in the Pakistani team. They played as if this was just an other one day and not the World Cup. This was specially apparent in Inzimam's demeanor. With that kind of attitude I am afraid we would be lucky to be in the Super 8.

Pakistan only need to n=move inzi up the order
other then that they just need to learn how to play one day cricket
nazir hit a six he should have stopped no
inzi and yousuf went too slow, 13 runs in 9 overs
only shoib malik played like he should have

Not sure why Rana is still in the team? Seems fashioning a beard is a good strategy to stay in the team. In that case, I would recommend Kamran Akmal to do the same.
But I am still hopeful. There is still a long way to go, and a bit of attitude is needed from our boys.

You dint make sense by any means. The team needs a swashbuckling change in the batting order. The bowling performance can definetely be improved with sami and afridi sitting out.

Kamran, you are supposed to analyse these factors and not just write some crazy sentences as if you were being given some money to write this. You need to report stuff with an open mind. I am terribly disappointed with your post. I have been in the past too. The only reason that brings me back here is the title of your posts.

hello very one, one thing i know and every one also that pakistan playing some players like rana, hafeez, kaneria. they shuld not be in the team specialy hafeez his score everage is under 20.i don.t know what to do but i can pray and abuse these players who are making us crap.

I was very surprised with the selection.
No Azhar Mahmood? Rana - why?
What happened to Sami - he is the only one who can bowl at 150 -why he is not playing and why is Rana playing???
Why persist with Hafeez?
Afridi should open with Shoaib Malik.
Yousuf should play at 3, Inzi at 4 and Younis at 5.
Sami should be in place of Rana.

Ofcourse I do realize my opinion counts for total
garbage. Have a nice day.

Change in the team and game plan.

Pakistan need to do things differently to Suceed.
You need your best players to perfom not shelter them.

I think the match was lost by Inzamam. He slowed down Pak innings by playing needlessely slow himself as well as holding back Yousuf from his natural game. You could see it in his body language towards the time he got out. He was just too afraid to lose and that is what he did.
Amazing how you can screw up your game when you curb your natural game.

Mr Kamran Abbasi

Did u have a head injury recently !!

1. NAZIR OUT AFRIDI IN
2. KANERIA OUT AZHAR IN
3. RANA OUT SAMI IN

Hafeez and Younis to open
Yusuf and Inzimam to follow
afridi-azhar and akmal to come later

I would like to cry later when hope is in its last, I can trust you on this one Kamran Bhai. For now, to all the pessimists; I see the glass half full!!! But what I really don't get and have mentioned so many times on this blog, is that WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY is Rana Naved being played??? Why is not Sami playing???? Sami was said to have been dropped previously because he was said to be to expensive a bowler. What about Nana Sahab?????!!!!! I'd prefer Sami!

Kamran Sahaab, i agree with everything you have to say about the bowling, but where the batting is concerned, my opinion is that the 1st three positions on the batting order should look like this:

1. Inzamam ul Haq
2. Muhammad Yousuf
3. Younis Khan

yes, thats how i think it shud be, in my humble opinion. the 2 most experienced Pakistani batsmen should go out bravel as openers and face the new ball to show that our team may have been written off but over our dead bodies will we give up...we have to fight like CORNERED TIGERS! this is as good a time as any to adapt the 1992 approach

More than embarrassment that is when you watch team with bunch of talent flush in toilet. There was no point of having Rana in Pakistan team. For the most important game how can you trust on Rana. I personally believe it has to be Mustaq Ahmed with his silly advice. It was very confident suggestion when Rameez Raja said "Imran Nazir is bit of basher". He isnt have as good as Afridi. Pakistan definitely was missing Razzaq today. How can you leave Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed back home to watch WWC on TV. PCB murder their dreams. Everybody was talking about Hafeez well today he was nowhere near to become permanent opener AVG only 19. Pakistan didn't come out with plan they took WI very lightly. Inzi need to listen coach advice rather than worry about what Mustaq Ahmed need to say. I don't know why he is with Pak Team anyways. If pakistan to get anywhere they will need to learn quickly from this game.

Imran Nazir need to sit out and should declare himself Unfit so we can have Salman Butt back in pakistan team. I am not in favor of Imran Nazir at all. Lovely flat six and next ball he flip when he was trying dip with extra nip. We all talk about Pakistan team is unpredictable Man who is the world player like M Yousuf throw his wicket away. I don't think it was WI bowling that surprise pakistan it was power of Black Jamaica. Reading WI face it was obvious that this victory means too much to them and to Pakistan it was another loosing ordinary ODI. Well this should exciting wwc keep your fingers across we may experience fire works when Afridi Join squad and should open the inning with Akmal. Inzi need to lead from the front and stop being lazy cow. Inzi was discovery of Imran Khan. Can inzi utilize same results that great legendary Imran Khan produce. Don't worry i might wont rain this time but maybe unpredictable Pakistan can give us something to cheer about at the end.

call me an optimist but Pakistan will reach to semis and mark my words, THEY WILL REACH SEMIS!!! (inshallah)

I agree that Rana should be OUT! and Iftikhar can share the new ball with Gul. On the batting side we need more depth and adding an all rounder will help. As for the holes I think the biggest hole is our team's inability to handle pressure and both the coach and the captain are to be blamed for this short coming.

well i think the $200 i [aid to dish network are going into garbage as Tuesday is garbage day here.
Jokes apart, i was stunned to see the team selection for today's game as the same old sucking Rana Naveed was into attack and the Kaneria's beautiful throw over our short struggling wicket keeper (luckily it didn't go for SIX) and he looked like an ordinary bowler(Afridi bowls better than him) By the way Inzimam did his best and baught a wicket of Ramdin to Kaneria to justify his selection ;)
Although they didn't bowl good at depth but still 242 wasn't that difficult target, Pakistan started the chase and openers did what they always do, but what the Heck were Yousuf and Inzi doing in the middle. I mean two world class batsmen were in the middle for about 25 overs and they could do nothing except taking the pressure on themselves They dont know how to attack!!!! Inzi & Yousuf, please look at Ponting how he dominates the bowlers with his class and makes his presence count. If Yousuf and Inzi had played up to the strike rate of 70 then situation would have been certainly different, and they way both of them were refusing taking easy Doubles i felt like Pakistan is still playing a warm-up match.
Although i am heart broken (Pakistan batting couldn't even fight, losing is later thing) i still hope Pakistan moves forward.
Good Luck!

What a game huh?

I enjoyed it to the fullest! Watching the game unfold at the stadium was quite an experience for me. Sarwan, Lara, Samuels and DR Smith did very well to place the team in a strong position ... which lead to their win.

Kinda was looking forward to a better performance from Mo Yo, I really enjoy his cricket. Inzi's partnership with him seemed unbreakable for a while. I think thats where we won the game (when that partnership was broken).

I wish Pak all the best in their remaining group stage matches [seeing that they won't be playing against us, lol]

Good luck to ma Windies! I'm proud of them.

-Peace!

The way the board was plnning for the world cup, this was to happen. No matter what we say, they'll do what they want and they do that without using their common sense.

Relax guys ... its only one loss. Remember how India started out in the last world cup. Just win one game and it becomes habitual ... your confidence gets a big boost and you play like you are invincible. Don't fret over this loss .. better things await you in future games ...

Man i dont get the Pakistanis... "Musharaf is the problem"??? WTF... i say Pakistan need to manage their players right and Pakistanis should quit making claims that do not make any sense. or else they will be made fun of by others

by looking at Pak's performance in this opening match...all I can say that pak's team should start playing gulli danda!!

I don't know why Pakistan likes Imran Nazir so much. The guy failed repeatedly in S Africa, plays foolishly and puts the whole team under pressure.

For me, this is a tale of two all-rounder Smith won it for WI. Rana started digging Pakistnai grave in the morning when he released all pressure that Umar Gul had created...He made sure his efforts didn't go unrewarded and returned with bat to put final nail in the coffin.
Also, we lost the match when Inzy and Yousuf let asking rate go over 6. When the most experienced batsman are on crease, why did they take the risk to let asking rate go over 7 when it was around 5 when Inzy came in. Had they allowed Req run rate to stay around 6, we may have had a chance.
On another note, Inzy publicized that he needs to bat at 4, displacing Yousuf who is well set at the position. There are only two positions for Inzy. Either number 5 or opener. No point is displacing younis or yousuf. With afridi returning in couple of matches, inzy should move to open and drop futile Nazir. just my humble opinion

Coming events cast their shadows before!

If there is any truth in that saying, it holds true for this team and courtesy, Inzimam who personally laid the seeds for this turmoil.

Inzimam's contributions as team leader including his role in team selection have remained questionable, throughout the recent weeks.

Prior to the commencement of the South African tour, he was made captain of the team but in no way given ownership rights in part or whole.

Take a glance back and trace his footsteps that reveal nothing but sheer stubbornness, and a passive but rude style of governance (this word may be a misnomer as he hardly deserves to be a leader despite holding some glossy records).

How effective a role Bob Woolmer has in ultimate team selection? Anyone's guess! Does he continue to lend support to Rana's inclusion in the playing eleven?

Like a rotten fish, Rana's smelly performance has begun extracting its toll and casting its shadow and spoiling the rest. He may not be the problem in whole but is turning out to be a part of it.

Sorry but it does matter!

Here, I feel inclined to borrow the following terms which we frequently use in fire protection systems engineering and application field:

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link!

A structure is only as strong as its weakest element!

The old steely Rana is now past his prime and beyond critical load bearing stage. He is acting more like spaghetti in boiling water and has lost all resilience and strength.

In his case, no glue is good enough to keep him bonded to the playing eleven. Please discard him and make other bold changes to strengthen the team structure.

This reality has to dawn on the coach and the team captain before the super 8 stage gets under way. How hard is this decision to make? What's holding them back?

I have refrained from name calling unlike many of my peers on this blog who obviously are upset to the point of fuming and blowing hot and cold. Rightfully so, perhaps!

Are we not all passionate about this sport of cricket!

Concluding remarks:

We can only sustain hope further provided the ingredients are put together in the right mix and furthermore, Inzi the cook goes about his business following the success recipe every step of the way. No dilution!

All is not lost, including the all important restructuring scenario. Go, give it a try.

A wishful team supporter

It seems we have a lot of negative going on than positive. People are really bitter towards the team and the players. I guess instead of shere critiquing we can atleast reflect on the efforts put in by players like Gul, Malik, and Rao Iftikhar. I understand that the team did hopeless and 242 would have been easily fetched. Despite, the poor performance i did see a positive within Shoaib Malik and our bowlers. Anyways, i feel it is very easy to get glued infront of the T.V and critique the hell out of everyone. The team is out for the world cup, the key players being injured there is a lot of pressure, we can atleast cut them some slack and encourage the team to perform better. No one likes to be humiliated and wants to taste defeat. We are really hypocritical when it comes to supporting our country. If everything is hunky and dory than we are at the airport welcoming the team with all joy and enthusiasm and when they play bad we just turn bitter. I guess being pakistani we should not lose hope in the team and be encouraging. Every mistake can be rectified. I do agree with Kamran Abbasi, there is hope. Kamran, i think you reflecting your thoughts and opinions is really commendable. Keep it up !

Pakistans team historically are inconsistent. Playing pathetic on one day and looking like world beaters the next. I would not count them out so soon. Pakistani supporters should support the team. Its when the team is down that it needs support, not when its doing well.

Kamran i agree with you. this team has alot of talent.This Pakistani team can defaeat the best and they will get to semi final easily.In this match Pakistan miss Razzaq and Afridi.Razzaq is injured. Pakistan will bring Azhar and Sami in next game.After one more game when Afridi will be in and world cup be ONNNNNNNN.

Pakistan is good team but they are not a great team without their lop player. Great teams of world cup are Australia, S.Africa, India and New Zealand. Now one of these teams have a very good chance of being replaced by W.Indies. They have the momentum, home crowd and desire. Pakistan has to sort out their player's attitude and drug problems. Its a SHAME

Pathetic is the word for Pakistan’s performance. Some of the key problems with our team.

1. Inzi is one of the worst captains Pakistan has seen. You have only one major bowler in Gul and you can not complete his 10 overs. He has no idea how and when to change bowling and fielding since he is too busy scratching his beard. He might be great batsman but he is no captain.
2. Why Shoaib Malik plays so late when he should be playing one down and Younis Khan should be playing at his place or maybe open.
3. Why was Rana playing? I don’t care how bad Sami or Azhar are, they are still 100 times better than Rana.
4. When Razzaq was in our 11 men squad then his replacement was Azhar so why was he not in the team. That should be a given...right?
5. Kaneria, has he ever helped us win a ODI. Why is he in the team.

In short other than above comments there are many reasons why Pakistan lost. Extremely careless batting by Younis ,Yousuf and Hafeez. Inzi played too slow and at there should have been more allrounders in the team so somebody could have helped Shoaib at the end. Razzaq and Asif we really miss you both.

hello all,
open will always going to be once u left yasir hameed out of the oneday team, last 2 ODI performace of his wasnt that bad that u opt for 2 openers that cannot be rely open at anytime, but then again we have the same set of team that was winning so whats lacking rana is below par for quite a while now and everyone knows it, then y he even in the playing 11, shoaib malik was a prolific scorer 1 down, won matches on his own, so y drop him to number 6 where younis has scored at a better rate?? answer is clear to me they both from same town and thats y he backs him too much, and thats interfering with coaching.... bowlers did well not to give any too many extras today what happened with waqar was history but once u learn those techniques to control line and lenght u dont need to be told same stuff over and over, secondly a lot been said about kaneria to me he shouldnt even be in the team doesnt matter afridi playing or not with him it shrinks our batting, this is no rocket science, u dont have to listen what imran khan says nowadays he just oppose everything and when people follow him look what happened? what did kaneria do, he asked for 2 regular openers even in ODI what thay doing newspaper saying imran nazir is in-form i dont see anything inform in him on his day he looks good but u asking 1 outta 20 games is that worth a risk cause other opener isnt even better but he gaves u added advantage with his bowling they both regular openers, he said younis should bat at 3 apart from that glorious 100 he hit against england last summer tell me his performance that one would single out that yeah pakistan's number 3 won the match for them, all of us can see those thing then the coach captain and the board is blind and deaf that they cant see and feel this things, o yeah they say(SALEEM ALTAF) ITS UR PERCEPTION!!!!! come on now we all know this outfit can do a lot better if we make couple of changes in the team, right combination would be, kamran akmal, mohammad hafeez, shoaib malik, inzamam, yousuf, younis, afridi, yasir arafat, mohammad sami, umar gul and rao ifthikhar anjum i just wish they gave serious thought on team selection in games to come, u have azhar mahmood too, when u know rana is not bowling well with the new ball y u keep giving him to spray paint it, he just needed to be thankful that he makes the cut to be in the team, and his place is just the dressing room!!!!!!! same for kaneria too

I agree with Kamran on his post mortem of Pakistani cricket strategy. In my view Younis Khan is a candidate for opening with Imran Nazir. Hafeez should be pushed down in batting order so that he gets time to improve his run rate from under 20. Inzamam to follow so that hecould lead from the front. Yousuf remains our middle order back bone. In the past several months Pakistan has been trying to use the same failing combination again and again and again without results. Rana should be given a long break as Kamran suggested. Inzamam has to come out of the shell to do some morale boosting and appreciation for the youngster on the field. He has to clap for his bowlers and he has to go to the other batsmen to give them his valueable suggestions so that the whole team knows that their captain is staying on top of the situation. What I see in Inzamam is a good humble person but not a captain of a leading cricket team.

Pakistani team did not do well today due to lack of stretgic planning and management in its development by Pakistan cricket Board (PCB). Whenever we lose a major tournament or a game, PCB always suggests that in future we will do well and improve our performance. It has not happened yet and we are an ongoing pattern of losing vital games and image of Pakistan's cricket in world. PCB does not have a clue what strategic planning means, how to establish objectives, and what data collection processes need to be adopted for measuring our players and team managgement's performance. PCB needs to establish and implement a system through which we can produce not just good players but the professionals.

if this was the result bob woolmer wanted, then i fear pakistan. if not, i fear for pakistan.

plenty of time.

After the kinds of performances Rana has been putting up in recent past, I was pretty sure that he was third choice from amongst Azhar, Sami and himself but Inzy chose him and then also opened the bowling with him. Sometimes it seems like I know more cricket then Inzy. What about Bob ? are you seriously trying to help Pakistan ? I guess after today, Rana should not play in rest of the world cup unless all the other bowlers somehow break their respective limbs and are unfit. Imran Nazir deserves only one more chance at best. He has shown what a useless batsmen he is. Finally why do we have Kamran Akmal in line up, poor keeping and poor batting. I thought I was not a conspiracy theorist but seems like Akmal and Rana are Inzy's favourits. Younis and Hafeez need to show some character. Yousuf has also not played an innings of note for a long time now, in one days ofcourse. I was very depressing to see Inzy and yousuf getting out at a time when good batsmen consider themselves well set and brace themselves for long innings. Common younis, inzy and yousuf. Shoaib Malik again showed his character today.

I blame RAzzaq for this (lol) Damn him and eating all that spinach, RAZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAQQQQQQQQQ where are u?????????????? We need U!!!!!!!

Since Younis Khan and M.Yousuf have often come into bat when the ball is still new, why are made to bat lower down the order? Inzi has definately made a case for him self to open the batting since he enjoys playing the anchor. He is powerful enough to pull and drive during the field restrictions. His stats might show otherwise, but given his experience now it seems a captain lead is required. Dependancy on make-shift volatile openers hasn't produced a good partnership at all (expections for one-shot individual performances).

RN-Hassan isn't the same bowler he used to be and is case FOR Mahmoud's inclusion.

Hi Kamran,
I might go ahead and agree with you, that this Pakistan team has in it to beat all teams in this tournament apart from the Aussies. But then, given the fickle nature of the one day game & also considering the fact that most of big 8 teams in world cricket today are world beaters on their day, your statement doesnt really make anything conclusive. So, then we come down to whether Pakistani's will be consistent enough to beat most teams in the world in this tournament. Given the format of the tournament and the super 8's in particular, I would say this tournament pays for consistency & that is the only thing that would be instrumental in taking you up to the semi's. Now, would you vouch for the Pakistani's to be consistent enough. I wouldnt, given that there are atleast more than 4 teams which can be said to be more consistent. The take is your's, and so is the decision whether you want to bite your words or not.

Lack of leadership, strategy ... mind boggling team selections ... why is kaneria playing ? has anyone seen is record in ODIs ... i think the answer will be because king khan said so ? Why is imran nazir being persisted with after repeated failures ? same is the case with rana ...

Hafeez and Younis should open, move yousuf and inzamam up, bring in Sami for Kaneria, Arafat for Rana ... when afridi comes back ... drop hafeez and make akmal open the innings ...

either woolmer has no say in the things or he has completely lost his cricketing sense ... in both cases it spells trouble for Pakistan ...

i think akmal and afridi should open, with younis at 3, yousuf at 4, inzi at 5, malik at 6, then azhar mahmood, then mohd sami, umer gul, rao iftikar

I think Pakistan should modify their batting line up. Kamram Akmal should open an Rana definatley needs to get out.
Chances are bit low but if Pakistan tries to do something I believe they can.

One thing I can never understand why Pakistani batsman play so slow when their early wickets are down. In that way, they pile up run rate to almost that point where it is impossible for any batsman to chase in the last overs. I have been seeing this strategy for a long long time and 90% of the time this strategy is failed.

How do you expect majority of Pakistani team players to perform at international level when they never really deserve to be even in domestic side?

Today's performance speaks itself....Pakistan should not be allowed at international level until it gives opportunity to those who deserves to play cricket (not on source).

Pakistan have and have always had, an abundance of talent. What they lack is a competent PCB that makes the right decisions, and a captain with a knowledge of the game and an ability t strategize when it is needed.Pakistan's wins have come in spite of, not because of Inzy's captaincy. Trust me, with him as captain, this side cannot win the world cup

Pakistan can take some positives from this game, namely Rao Iftikar, Umar Gul and Shoaib Malik.
The negatives are: Openers and Rana (both- nothing new here- everybody knows this- thats the good news!!)
Neutral- Kaneria
Future plans: Afridi replaces Nazir, Sami in place of Rana. Kaneria can play against England, NZL and South Africa (teams that dont play spin well) while against Australia and sub-continent teams, play Azhar Mahmood. Pak still has a rerasonable chance to make it to semis. All the best!

What did u expect from inzi? His body language tells it all and rubs on all other players. He is not motivated and doubt he can motivate his players. It seems he favors those who he thinks look pious. Please get a real leader who could get the best out of each player playing. WE some need someone with passion to win, hungry for runs and wickets.

Bob Woolmer should have been fired when he rated South Africans as his favorite team. That's showing real confidence in Pak team!!

I think Pak will bounce back. Even without Abdul Razzaq, Akhtar, Md. Asif they are a formidable team. But to say that the only team they can't beat is the Aussies is stretch. I think India, Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand can beat them handily.

The Pakistani team has gone through a dramatic transformation: that most unpredictable of cricket teams has become boringly predictable losers. List of teams that are sure against any contest with this ill-managed, horribly-led, devoid-of-talent Pakistan team: SA, Aus, Ind, SL, WI, NZ, and possibly Bangladesh. And to top it all, these bunch of shameless cricketers create controversy whereever they go. It's not Hair, but Pakistan that the ICC should throw out.

Inzi and Yousuf needs to work on their running between the wickets. Their 60 runs partnership could have easily been 80 runs had they looked to carve out single instead of blocking the ball straight to the fielders. Also on numereous occasions they failed to convert ones into two. Additional 20 to 25 runs during that period would have made world of difference in keeping the pressure under control. In my calculation Pakistan gave away about 15 runs in the field thanks to poor fielding and missed out on another 10 runs due to poor running between the wickets. We did not play as badly as everyone thinks. We need to do the following;
1)Dramatically improve running between wickets.
2)Hold atleast 6 overs of our best bowlers at death.
3) Get lessons from Imran nazir how to field.
Its just a matter of getting little things right and we can go far in this world cup. We still have time to get things right in the next two games.

simple instructions to prove Rana's quality.

COMPARE HIM TO ALL THE OTHER BOWLERS IN THE MATCH! DUH!

Rana is the OOOOOOOONLY thing that Pak needs to get rid of, I am not disappointed from anything else, but that the Rana is in team...

okay i dont understand what rana is doin in the team .. pathetic performance for so long .. i mean cmon give a guy break . he was good no doubt but its been too long for that .. he shoudnt be playin and if he is still playin makes us thinks boards attitude towards sami , prolly he is from karachi or sumethin thats why he is dealing the axe so bad ... i mean i can understand he hasnt been performing that good either but he is better than rana at the moment , fast and unlucky and we have seen that , another point of azhar , he was in to replace razzaq and he wasnt playin , i dun get it .. its jus crazy! , kamran akmal ?? zulqarnain haidar was sent to south africa to give him exposure into international cricket .. and never got a chance , not even in one dayers !! how would a guy get exposure without even letting him play ?? ridiculous !! pakistan board is run by all crack heads that what i think, there is talent but politics .. it feells so sad to see that seriously .. sux ! no comments seriously , pakistani board is jus inexplainable !

I thin it is time woolmer and inzi must realise used cartridges wont win games for paistan.Imran nazir,rana naveed,and azher mehmood huh they got to be out of our side we need to bring in yassir for rana afridi for imran nazir the send kamran and hafiz should open or lets make it shoaib malik and hafiz yousuf at 3 inzi at 4 younis at 5 kamran at 6 yassir at 7 and afridi at 8 or may be switch afridi with yassir according to conditions and then bowlers.
Please someone send this team list to inzi or we are not playing semi final.

Pakistan needs to play sami if they want to win. they cant rely on rana who is averageing over 5.5 runs pers over in the last 3 series. they must play sami in place of rana and azhar in place of iftakar. when afridi comes back kaneria should sit. pakistan is a good team but imzis captansy is not doing soo well for the past few months it looks like their is some favoritism in the choosing of the team for example(rana) he should of been droped long time ago but they keep playing for no particular reason soo please play sami and azhar in the next games and drop rana!!!!!!!!!

Surely, there is hope for pak team, they can still qualify for the super 8's and perform well from there, no need to panic. I wonder whatever happened to Asem kamal...thought he was a deecent bat...what struck me was the absolute similarity in the posts above and the ones whenever India loses-is full of people pulling the indian team down....does not matter that i am an indian supporter, am sure the pak team performance will improve once Shahid Afrid is eligible to play and once they sort out the bowling combo's. Re-Danish Kaneria, it is only one match, this player could still turn out to be a match winner like mushy in 1992 wc. All the best, we want to see exciting criket from pak team...something they are capable off and will surely provide...

The Pakistani team has gone through a dramatic transformation: that most unpredictable of cricket teams has become boringly predictable losers. List of teams that are sure to win against any contest with this ill-managed, horribly-led, devoid-of-talent Pakistan team: SA, Aus, Ind, SL, WI, NZ, and possibly Bangladesh. And to top it all, these bunch of shameless cricketers create controversy whereever they go. It's not Hair, but Pakistan that the ICC should throw out.

Well well.....First Inzi needs to be out from team as soon as possible, does anyone pay attention or watch his body language? being as captain he just don't have that charisma, no positive body language, which is very essential for a captian to keep his team at very top,I don't mind losing, but please fight back,the way Yunus Khan and Yusuf lost their wickets,and the turning point was the way Inzi and Yousf played the game.Second back in Pakistan we need fresh faces , from top to middle every one should be retired or fired what every it takes,when I said the top, I mean it , the very top too, Wasim Bari rules the selection board like he is the owner, he is been there since he left cricket, and seems like he will only leave when he reaches to 100 years old.......Pakistan is full of politics so as cricket.

Imran Nazir,Rana and Kaneria should be out.Kaneria and Rana is a liability.
Pakistan need economical bowlers.And
Nazir what ever he is , he is out of
form , but I am sure they will drop him
after pakistan itself gets dropped out.

Sami has to play. He is the quickest, perhaps that can bring a bit more fire power than R-Naved brings.
And without Afridi they cannot hope to get the opposition all out. He is an explosive opener who should be at the top and not left to do the hari-kari at the end.

Can anybody from PCB explain why Imran Nazir and Rana is playing? Farhat is definately a better opener then Nazir - all should agree. Rana has recently grown a beared is that enough reason for Inzi to keep him playing? You are right Mr. Abbasi we do not have enough batsman in the present team. If they drop Nazir, who will open with Hafeez? Kamran? Not reliable at all. They should bring Shoaib to open with Hafeez and should bring Azhar and Sami in the team replacing Rana and Nazir. They should not hesitate to try Yasir Arafat. Only those should play who can perform. I think every one can perform except Rana and Nazir. These two are the useless players in team and should not be given any further chance. I think Pak team should have batted first and should try to bat first in the future matches if they have option. Chasing will always be difficult for them. Lets hope they can win against Ireland and Zimbabwe. Thats the maximum I can expect from this Inzi's wonder team.
Thank you for your comments, they are always very interesting.

Why dont they give yasir arafat a go. I ve seen him play he is a great player

kamran i can unjderstand why you are thinking in such a way.as a pakistani u are supposed to think so.
but to be precise this pak team doesn't look like it will win the world cup.something is missing in this team.may be the desire to win and a few selection problems exist .
let us put it this way,this team will not win this worldcup but we can look forward to the next one by dropping the aged players and some inconistent performers and inducting the fresh legs and blood into this team and hopefully they would win you the next world cup.
i thing either aus,india or newzealand will win this worldcup,if not these 3 teams then it would be england

this place is good to vent your self out, but tell me one thing. inzi,rana,kamran,sami don't give a rats a**. the fat cow is old he needs to go. but i guess he follows the foot steps of those doubled faced leaders of pakistan. never give up ur chair.
inzi is fat. he should have gone last year after indian series.
rana naveed should be banned from cricket, any kind. even than ramadaan after eftar cricket. he should be fined 10000$ if he even come close a cricket ball. he should be sent to grade 8 cricket clubs, for batting practice.
kamran akmal i don't even have any more anger left to say any thing about him.
he should to sent to his original job "fishing". every time he comes to bat he looks like he is throwing net in the sea for fishing.
i think in last 2 years, he have soored less then how much he got paid, i am saying every lackh equal to one runs.
i agree with someone earlier stated, its not the bowling, its the kings of the team batting. which is bad.
if team like w.i scores 240 plus, X it by 3 when playing vs ausies. i hope this never happens. and in betting. what we scored today. - 125 againts ausies. take my words.
scores vs diffrent teams, if we reach to super 8
ausies 145
s.a 173
eng 190
n.z 140 bond is in the town, imran nazir is going to wet his pents. kamran akmal will sound like chicken.
oram is going to average 9.5 againt rana.

i am done. i thank mr kamran,the creater of this forum for letting us vent out.

one question mr Kamran: can you forward this page to Bob wolmer, i guess you will the only one who have access to his e-mail.
tell him to tell his boys, how much we hate them.
specially
leader is 1.Rana Naveed/Kamran Akmal.
2.inzi
3.sami
4.imran nazir.
5 y.khan
and the whole paki team other then ..... let me think ..........................i guess they are still back in pakistan.

again thanks for letting me vent out.

another disappointed performance by pakistan.i am quite surprised by people who SUPPORT sami .what is difference b/w sami and rana naveed.both r of same quality and playing in favour of opposition.we r still in the world cup and can win it.we lost to west indies in 1992 in first match also.only we need good openning.i think that kamran akmal and younis khan should open the innings, becoz younis khan is almost a opener from last 3 years, coming in first 5 overs. shoaib malik shoulb be at no. 3 and then yousuf.
Our batsman fall in this match , but u cant blame them becoz we only have 3 batsman in team , one good bowler umer gul, one bowling all rounder hafeez and one batting all rounder shoaib malik.rest of all r just there for enjoiying a good holiday trip.
and if u want to improve the standard of cricket kicks out wasim bari from selection. he was also the presedent of selection commette in 2003 WC,
imran nazir didnt play a one day in two years how can anyone expect from him to play a single good innings in WC, DANISH kareia play 16 onedays in 7 years and he is in wc, pray all becoz that is the only way we can win.

Despite the opening defeat, it is not quite right to write off pakistan. I have seen them over the years. They have an amazing way of bouncing back when they are seemingly down and out... with or with out fire power. I think they can work into a winning form even with the talent on hand. Batting is fine. Bowling just needs desciplined handling. Most teams in the past also made it not purely becuase of big time bowling. Its with measured desciplined output. Don't need super heros. Lets look forward to a cool headed effort in the next matches. No, there is plenty of hope for Pakistan. But I must say, Rana and Akmal are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Why dont they give yasir arafat a go. I ve seen him play he is a great player

Thank You Kamran, for standing by your team.....

Well Well Well. i dont think that we should be worrying about this defeat too much. we had some positive in Malik, Gul and Rao. i was also pleased to see Kamran Akmal get his mojjo back behind the stumps which should be his first and top most concern. the only thing the worrys me is Inzi's lame and absolutly ridiculous decision to play Rana. it seems as if nothing has changed in our system. in the past you could play for pak if you knew some one influencial. Now it seems if you can grow a beard you are going to play for the team. Please inzi bhai i beg you to leave religion out of sports.

What a team combination !! Tail starts at number 8 and we usually loose first 3 wickets before 50 runs are scored - a perfect situation for the middle order batsmen batting with legs trembling. You can expect anything - run outs, pre-planned shots etc. The best way to get out of this is to control your nerves and make use of your feet and try to unsettle the bowler's line and length.

For the past so many innings I have seen Younis walking in to bat in the first three overs. He is virtually batting as an opener any way. I do not find any body who can take the role of Javed Miandad, a grafter who consolidates the innings, puts the pressure on the bowler by taking cheeky singles and relieving the pressure on our team instead we have all stroke players who have the same style and get out the same way. Certain players need to be given certain roles and they should stick to them.

The opening pair need to stay there for at least 10-15 overs. They should try to play with straight bat and pick the gaps by make use of their feet and wrist. We will do well if we paly the following team and stick with for some time. One odd change can take place due to wicket conditions.

Let us remember game of cricket technique and guts matter fifty fifty. Watch other teams playing - they use their feet and come to the pitch of the ball and hit where ever they want to hit. Let us not make too many changes as this is a confidence killer.

Let us pray for the team and give'em the best they possibly can,

Hi Kamran,

1. The openers are too mercurial. Nazir is hit or miss type. They are better than Akmal opening the batting. Akmal if he can get into some form can do some biffing at the end of the innings. At this point, given the current sqad, Pak opened with the given set of players. They should see off the new ball or atleast take time for the first 5 overs before throwing kithen sink. Patience is the key, esp if you are chasing low or decent totals.

2. If Yousuf and Inzy are at 3 and 4, where does Younis Khan play ? At 5 ? Are they ready to do that ?

3. It was a longer tail because 2 key allrounders were missing - Razzaq and Afridi. Razzaq is out due to injury and Afridi due to ban. You are asking this question to which even a lay man will have answers for.

4. I agree, one would have thought Azhar to have played for Rana, given that Azhar can bat decently.

5. Sami for whom ? If Azhar is playing instead of Rana, then Sami can play only instead of Kaneria. Given that Hafeez and Malik are already spinners in the team.

6. Well its a selection problem. Given that Razzaq is not there, and already a lot of all rounders, they should have taken an extra batsman.

7. Afridi will play after his ban. Having both Kaneria and Afridi will be a liability. Then yu have 4 spinners in your line up (Hafeez and Malik). That will be a waste and a poor decision.

Thanks,
Ram

HOPE needed to EXIST before it could have been ABANDONED.

I heard BOB WOOLMER said he wants to prove the critics WRONG. He wants to show Imran Khan and Javed Miandad they are wrong. AT THIS STAGE ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT HE's PROVING THEM RIGHT (HAHA).

The probelm lies in the BASICS, dropped cathces (younis after gayle got out), fielding (kaneria's throw), and running between wickets (13 runs in 9 overs). Fitness - doesn't mean GROW a BEARD and till you HEART's CONTENT ( or even longer).

RANA - drop him atleast SAMI can BAT a bit better
KANERIA - drop him for AZHAR, the guy might throw straight, can't BAT or BOWL like Kaneria.
IMRAN NAZIR - Who's HE, Even AFRIDI can last longer?
SHOAIB MALIK - Remember when PAK was winning matches he WAS AT 3.

A few observations:

1. Inzy keeps using Rana for opening. Strange considering his abysmal record as an opening bowler. He bowls well at the death. Yet, by the time WI innings entered 40th over Rana had only 2 overs left of which 1 was utilized. Strange, strange...

2. Afridi should play instead of Kaneria, unless the pitch is slow enough for both of them to stride onto the green.

3. Putting either Afridi or Malik at the top of the batting order might be a good idea. Gives the option of having an extra bowler and having a potentially explosive batsman at the top.

4. With Razzaq out of the side, Azhar Mehmood has to play. No two opinions on this one.

If anyone has to sit out, it has to be either one of Rana or Rao. If Azhar can use the new ball, and Rana is to be used at death, and during the mid-innings, then Rao should sit out. If Azhar doesnt have Inzy's confidence, then Rana has to sit out. Or may be both of them stay out and Sami comes in.

Regarding you thought on teams other than Aussies not having skills to beat Pakistan; they are, well, interesting.

Can some body tell why Inzi decided on bringing in Rana Naveed on attack in 47th over? His previous two spells were pathetic and giving away 16 runs in his third spell he simply gave away the game. As if this was not big enough blunder on part of Inzi, he needlesly made the chase out of reach through his exaggeratingly defensive batting.
I do not see any problem with the team or its ability to beat any team, even Australia, only if our captain knows what he is doing.

Posted by: I want to play as Pakistani opening batsman at March 14, 2007 3:37 AM

Enough has been already said and well said. I just can't believe why Inzi did not play Sami, Azhar, or Arafat in place of Rana who even got heavy beating against Canada earlier in the warm up match. If I were a Pakistani Opening Batsman I would at least respect the decision of Pakistan to give me the precious opportunity to open for my country. I would play sensibly and responsibly at a respectable rate (if aggressive batting is impossible) but how come Nazir and Hafeez don't have this same feeling as I have. They do the same mistake over and over again in every match. UNBELIEVABLE! Kamran Akmal is good for nothing. He can't do even average keeping and batting is just too much for him. Inzi made persistent mistakes as he did not change the bowling at the right time, so poor performance from him as a batsman and a captain as well. He shoufl have given Umar his full overs (10) who was just too much to handle. I don't know why he pursued on giving Rana and Kaneria more and more chances to bowl even though they were bowling really bad. I think WI and Ireland will make to the second round. Lets see.....

We people in Pakistan are cricket crazy. But this game has given us nothing instead of disappointment every time. Plus cricket has played a major role in destroying other games in Pakistan too. Take example of Hockey, which is touching the lowest bottom. We should promote other games instead of cricket in pakistan

GEEZ.......this new thread appeared on the blog as if thunder and lightening has struck Mr. Abbassi! :-)

Never, mind we all are in the same state as you are. Since it is only 10:00 p.m. in Caribbean now and Inzi must be in the second mode of his quote, 'eat, sleep, gym' he believes in "early bird gets a worm" philosophy. But, it may not have occur to him ever about the fate of the poor little early worm!

People are demanding Inzi and Rana's head. You can't kill two birds with one stone. Jokes aside, Rana will get a break for sure, and Inzi will stay. But, he must play at number 3. It would be better if Shoaib Malik opens with Imran Nazir, if the later fails against Ireland then its Afridi, who in any case will be in for the match against Zimbabwe.

Mr.Asif Saeed said something about Younis Khan putting on the gloves. I have been saying this from the time Pak toured SA when Kamran Akmal had a torrid time with the gloves. But, this will not reach to the deaf ears of Inzi and Bob. This will give him a break and Pakistan can have an extra bowler or a batsman.

Today Kaneria was able to spin and turn the ball well, but he was luckless and aimless as usual in his fielding and his weird over throw was almost a SIX. After seeing him bowl today, I would like to change my opinion, he may not be successful on these small grounds, where hitting a six is so easy! When Afridi plays DK has no room. Rao bowled well, so you can only bring in Sami or Azhar in place of Rana. The later is more dependable with the bat but, he too gets tired after bowling 5 overs. I wonder whats wrong with these fast bowlers of today? Umar Gul couldn't continue after 6 overs. Sami if he gets an early wicket, he bowls with a lot of determination and grit and he too is not bad with the bat, and he is definitely much fitter than Azhar and his fielding is also better than him. So, I would vote for Sami if there is a choice between the two.

Rajesh Singh: India's bowling is definitely mediocre accept the fact. Look at the way Pathan bowled in that match, wayward and pathetic bowling and he was lucky to get 3 wickets. Look at Munna Bhai Patel, he bowled 4 overs and was sticking his tongue out like a dawg! Only Zaheer Khan is good at the moment. Compared to India's batting their bowling is definitely mediocre. They are lucky to have bowled out WI for 85 on that day, BUT you cannot get them out so cheaply in every match, they are not Canada. Wait and see the super 8 match between WI and India.

And Raj, this time IF .........lemme first laugh with a big LOL....... IF Pakistan beats Ireland and Zimbabwe AND goes to the super 8, THEN this time they will break the Jinx. They will beat India in the world cup. Whether Afridi opens the innings or plays at number 7 it won't make any difference, Pakistan will beat India. I don't bet but, I will send you 2 cents through email if India wins :-) Take care.

Please tell me why we played Mohammed Asif in S.Africa when he had elbow problems, and the tour was a warmup for W.CUP. If we had his servies today we could have bowled out W.I. for less runs than our batsman have scored.(I hope they would)

Hi,

Everyone must realize that the bowling strength is not that good, and yet they have did a very good job restricting WI for 242, what can u expect from those bowlers they done absolutly good job, i think with these bowlers we should always keep an eye on chasing 280+ scores, which will be alot more difficult for our batsmans if they continue like this. Similarly Inzi & Yousaf should move up to number 3 & 4, with Younis & Nazir starts the opening & Hafeez in the middle order.
If i were the captain i would have picked Sami for Rana and Azhar for Danish. Similarly i agree with som

i dont seem to understand ,y the management is sticking with mohammad hafeez,he is of no use,team would have been better off with yasir hammeed.afridi should be in kineria should be out,azhar should be in and rana should and once again team should send mohd hafeez back home..

pathetic Pathetic & pathetic that is how i can explain our spineless team, this team needs a big changhe starting from Coach, Captain & vice Captain,the entire selection committe including the big boss Mr.Musharaf the president of Pakistan please keep him and Imran Khan out of our cricket team, believe me we will start to do fine.God bless pakistan
thanks
after that we can think about playing cricket

I think the chances of Pakistan winning the World Cup are about the same as me getting struck by lightning!

I bet half of our team can’t run for 10 minutes straight. Inzi would be the first person to pull-out after walking for about 10 meters!

Cricket has become a game of extreme fitness, which is what our players lack the most.

Where’s the new talent? Oh wait, isn’t the nation too busy playing with their cell-phones or smoking the best of Afganistani leafs? I think just like Squash and Hockey, the game of Cricket is going to countries where each player must first be an athlete!

For the past seven years, I've been wondering how someone of the quality of Azhar Mahamood isn't featured regularly. Call me crazy but he is on par, if not better, than Abdur Razzaq.

The sooner he is included in the team, the more stability Pakistan will enjoy. Of course, after such a long lay off I wonder what Azhar can do to justify his selection. It will be wonderful if he performs exceptionally well and throws mud on the faces of those who kept him out of the team.

i hope pakistan makes it to super 8. i paid 180$ for the world cup package.
i know they will never reach to semi.
but i was smart i took days off with all super 8 games for gropu D 2 team i knew 5 weeks ago that Pakistan will never top Group D. but i now i am worried that if even we can make it to S8. it seems, like but now its too late, i will lose all my days off. if we are unable to make it to S8.
please

Mr. kamran, can you e-mail Mr. Bob the "pay check collector, without working" please reach to S8.
we do work hard and every $ is earned with blood and now it is coming out from our eyes.

MR. Bob all i asking is S8. lose all the games in S8. i don't care. Please..

Dear kamran,
good comments ,iagree with yiur points ,the team is required to be told to bat 50 overs ,in imran nazir we are trying to put engine of afridi which also needs overhauling.Rana sahib need some long rest before being ousted.best of luck.

i agree with u kamran...rana should carry drinks n towels for the rest of tournament...yasir or azhar shud play instead of him..dnt knw abt sami man...i think he shud be in playin 11...either for rao or kaneria...i personally think our bowling wasnt that bad..i mean coupla of former cricketers were talkin abt 500 only last week as a potential total...bowlers only gave out half of those runs...dnt wana waste time n talk abt fielding...u knw aint nuthin gona happen...lol...our battin was pathetic...i seriously dnt understand whats goin on...we should drop nazir for the next match n either open with shoaib malik or younis khan with hafeez...one-day game is all abt all-rounders..n we have plenty of 'em but our captain doesnt know how to use them...give this team to 'Sir Wasim Akram' n he will show us how to make these lazy a-s-s-es play....watever we think n say ....our players shud have a positve mind frame n that could win us games (they already got the talent..i mean they r those fortunate 11 out of those millions out there in pakistan who will sacrifice anything and everything to be in that same position..)....n i think they are too many religous stuff goin on...sometimes it feels like they are not even practicing..jus keepin beards n prayin to god so tht they could win matches.....anywayz i still have my hopes alive...GO PAKISTAN! YEA...

Pakistan sucks big time. They will lose in the first round. Except for two or three all are bits & pieces batsmen with no good averages.

Looking at Mohammed Yusuf and Rana with the beards it's disgusting. They are looking ugly & dirty!

"...there is only team that Pakistan don't have the skill to beat and that's Australia."
There are several teams that have the skills to beat every OTHER team on their day, including Australia. I can count Australia (of course), Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, and New Zealand. So, what's so great about Pakistan having the skill to beat every other team EXCEPT Australia? I don't get it.

3 batsmen, 5 all rounders, 1 wicketkeeper, 5 bowlers and 1 fielder (Imran Nazir)

What kind of team is that? Who plays with such a ridiculous formation. Ridiculous, absolutely Ridiculous. Agreed that we have lost three of our best bowlers/players but at least field a balance side.

And somebody please explain on what basis imran nazir, Kaneria, Rana are playing for pakistan team?

The biggest obstacle that pakistan face now is ireland...if pakistan can some how by hook or crook manage to beat ireland they may have a realistic hope of reaching the super 8s .
semifinal may be a distant dream but i guess under the current scenario every match should be played like a final.Ireland played very well in the warm up matches and has clearly suggested that they have a very capable bowling attack and considering pakistans current batting...posting a decent total will be an uphill task.
Everything is wrong from team selection to captaincy ...I am afraid they have got it terribly wrong..unfortunately inzamam does not have the potential to be a leader...he has no leadership skills , his tactics are pathetic and i find it hard to belive if he has what it takes to boost the morale of the side now.
It apparently seems that the selection in the squad under inzamams regime is based on the religious aspects rather than potential..you can clearly see that rana naved is being played again inspite of some extraordinary performances in the past ...even the canadians had a bowl playing him ...what is the new magic the beard...
Sulman butt was pakistans best opener under the present lot along with taufiq umar and they are not in the squad...its pathetic...imran nazir might be a good fielder but his batting is very vulnerable ...he might be attacking but he will score in 20% of the matches and therefore is not reliable...so lets assume that we have 2 opneres in the shape of hafeez and nazir who will make 10-12 runs in a match...what is the point in playing them ? beats me ..but do we have any other players in the lot who can replace them ? this is a disaster in team selection..i mean wouldnt we be better off opening with younis khan and afridi .. i am sure they can only do better ..anyways younis khan comes in the first or second over so he is an opener..and we could strengthen the middle order by putting 2 good batsman over there asim kamal could have been one ...but our selectors had other ideas..so we dont even have any other middle order batsman??
i personally feel that playing kaneria is a blunder i mean what is the point in playing him..i am not suggesting that kaneria is a bad bowler ...its the captain who has outsmarted the game...if you are playing an attacking bowler ...you have to attack with him...if you are going to defend with him like we do with afridi or malik its not going to be beneficial to the teams cause infact that move will back fire...today west indiees were in deep trouble and what did the genius do ?? he started defending with kaneria ?? isnt he a genius ...this is what he has learned in 20 years of cricket pathetic ..he over bowled all his pace bowlers so as to ensure that he is done with the thinking job ahead...it would be very fair to say that pakistan should have restricted them to 200 the max even if we had a mediocre captain....i am not making an excuse for the poor batting display...241 was very chasable..and as far as inzamams batting debate at no 3 is concerned..if you havent figured it out yet..i feel sorry for you he is incapable of batting at no3 he knows his true talent and that is the reason that he comes later on...he is incapable of dealing with the new ball..he has never done so and there are gg to be no exceptions ..

I think Pakistan may not have the chance.India almost lost to a associate country last time and still reached the final. But they had the pool there. But Pakistan is nowhere near its best.Only player who i beleive as a real threat is Shoaib Malik and its a pity that he was not there when it was 2 down. There needs a fresh air in the think tank. Why afridi is not opening the innings? Right now they are Just "Eat,Sleep,?"

They say cricket is an unpredictable game. Perhaps no other side displays that unpredictability with almost predictable regularity as do Pakistan. They also say Pakistan blow hot and cold. I guess today was not a "blow hot" day, which by the way is few and far between.
The last one was the second ODI during the recent South African tour. Will the next one be before this WC is over ?!

The team that played better cricket won and thats it. Congats to the west indian team.

I feel the world cup format is not a true reflection of what the One Day form requires. Any of the major teams can beat the other on their best day. With just one game against a major side in the group phase, the world cup's format isn't a true reflection of how One Day cricket works. I agree, if Pakistan wins against the minnows and advances to the Super 8s, it won't be as respectable now that they've lost the most important match of the group phase. But thats just it, its the only match of the group phase that actually tests the side. West Indies came out with passion in front of a home crowd that has been waiting for this day for years, it was a difficult time out there.
I don't agree with those who feel this side hasn't earned the respect of their fans. What about the series against England in 2005 (while England were drunk after winning the Ashes), the series against West Indies in West Indies last year, and the one day matches against India in India in 2005, where Pakistan won the series 4-2. May I remind others a couple of the matches in that series saw Pakistan chase over 300 runs successfully.
We mustn't call for their heads. Starting the world cup against the host side of the world cup put the team under tremendous pressure. It wouldn' have been an easy task for anyone. Our bowling did well, much to the surprise of everyone, and I am positive all of us were hopeful Pakistan would see it through to 242 easily. Back in '99 our bowling was superb. Now, our batting seems to be our strength (even Tony Cozier felt the Windies didn't score enough runs against a "strong Pakistan batting side"). Its only one game. Yes, Ireland and Zimbabwe are next, but its the World Cup. No team will win it unbeaten, and thats virtually guaranteed.
To those who lost hope now, I'm positive you'll be praising the team once they bounce back, whether it be in this tournament or some time in the future.

What a pathetic show of impotence by Pak team. Inzi's time has been gone for years. He weighs 500 Kgs and still thinks he can play interanational cricket. What a joke of openers ?? DOesn't Pakistan have enough Dhobis to bring to WC to open?? Malik is the sole fighter.
Rana Out, Openers both out. Open with Afridi. Drop Younis to 6th down.
Shame on Pakista.

Dear Kamran, let me tell you where the problem lies. The problem is in the beards. These mullahs will be better off in Afghanistan and Iraq, blowing themselves off in the name of Allah rather than being in the cricket field wasting everybody's time. Here is my suggestion to improve this team in the future.

Kick Inzamam ul Haq (BEARD) out, Kick Rana Naveed (Beard) out, double kick Mushtaq Ahmed (beard) out. Ask Yousaf Youhana to shave off and he could stay, otherwise kick Yousaf Youhana (beard) out. I can assure you Allah will start getting gracious on this team. Otherwise, hoping anything else would be like making a fool out of ourselves.

absolutely pathetic performance from pakistan. poor team selection and even worse batting. i think top three batsmen should take courses on shot selection. what the hell was younis thinking hooking a wide ball on off towards leg. i am already starting to see future full of troubles for this team. imagine after inzi.. younis is most likely to be the captain. i agree younis has been a good player recently but he has been riding his luck all the time. he doesnt deserve to bat at the most important position in the lineup. i feel ashamed on being such an enthusiastic supporter of this current pakistani team full of crap.

Afridi should come in to replace Rao Iftikhar as soon as he becomes available and bat before Kamran Akmal.

I would love to see Pakistan in next round but i am starting to loose my hope seeing their pathetic performance. i think the ireland match will be a tough one.

im tired of wasting my time on useless shows so maybe we should atleast cut the amount of time that is going to be wasted by watching pakistani games. how abt inzi just negotiates with every opponenet caption abt the start of the game. i think inzi should offer oppenents that we will start at 20/2 with 5 over. i doubt opponents would agree at that score but 10/2 at the end of 5 over is very realistic. another tactic to save some time is at the end of 40 overs, inzi can just say that hey opponents just add 80 more runs to ur total so pakistan doesnt even waste their time by bowling at the end of the innining. now that 15 overs reduction is almost one hour and fifteen miniutes. paki players dont even deserve the lunch and im sure opponents would want to win quickly so we can sack lunch time out of the pakistani games. thats more than valuable 2 hours alone that every pakistani fan would save by not watching useless games. seems like a paki version of 20/20 games

if all these negiotiations doesnt work they maybe they should just send back rana, nazir and kamran akmal back to pakistan without asking ICC for replacement. sari kishtiyan jala kar larnay aahain hain wali baat hogi. atleast then we know our playing 11 will be out of availabe 12 players. makes it easy to select 11. since afridi is out nywayz, playing 11 will be available 11 and then when afridi comes back the weakest link can be kicked out until needed.

Unfortunately the truth is that Pakistan cannot afford to play Kaneria - he is a liability on the field, his batting isn't that great, and on these small pitches, most batsmen will be able to clear the ground easily.

Pakistan have got to play Afridi - can help them mix up their batting order, and along with Hafeez and Malik Pakistan will easily have 20 overs taken care of.

Rana is a tricky situation, he is a clever bowler, one of the few with a good slower ball which has proven to be lethal in these conditions. Lucky for Pakistan Rao had a great and Gul had a good spell as well.

About the batting order, I don't think Pak can afford to make Younis Khan open, they'll have to stick to 3-4-5 for Khan, Mohd Yousuf and Inzi. And with Shoiab Malik and potentially Afridi/Hafeez (if they change the order) to follow, they can chase down or score anything in excess of 270-300. Its just important that one of the 3-4-5 scores big, which unfortunately didn't happen for Pakistan today!!

Hi Kamran, I have following points to make:-
1. Generally the team was energetic in the field but unfortunately inzi never possesses the acumen to use his bowlers -- result butchery in last 5 overs.
2. K Akmal was better yet missed catch and run out chance and irresponsible shot --- result nothing can be done now about wk.
3. I Nazir, Hafeez, Younis careless shots-- result a disaster
4. Yousaf and inzi too underconfident and submissive --- result asking rate at 30 overs above 7.

Very Poor…Very Poor performance all-round by a strong team, unbelievable. For a while I thought Pakistan will chase a target of 190 runs and chase is very comfortably unfortunately, drop catches, bad fielding and very awful balling at end 10 overs. I am sure if they continue like this offcourse they won't beat Zimbabwe they will lose to Ireland as will.

One thing which people are not pointing is captaincy. Inzi lacks courage and imagination, as it seems. Spinners were going ok and had held the batsmen back reasonably. Ball was old and soft and it gets harder to hit a spinner in the end, considering Bravo and Smith are not good players of spin. So why does Inzi have to bring his pacers back for the last 5 overs. Anyway, the way Ireland played against SA in the warm ups, I think they have a very real chance of sending Pakistan back. If by any chance we make it to next round then lets get ready for the real movie which will be played in that round. This was just a trailer. I am really looking forward to the a** kicking which India, SA, NZ, Aus, heck every other team is gonna dish out to Pakistan in days to come.

hi kamran what i feel particularly is tht pak sud open with kamran akmal n younis khan.Akmal i hav seen few of his innings against the seaming ball he luks one of the few pak bats with some footwrk anyways i feel he is a waste down as he doesnt possess the power for accleration.yousuf at3 inzy 4 n malik i feel is very underrated he sud be at 5 then power players sud follow afridi he will be back,azhar.As fgor rana he sudnt even allowed to carry drinks i personally feel he sud be given drugs by someone(who cares for pak cric)so tht he gets caught n is banned for life he is a born losser

For those that are not on Pakistan's bandwagon, please do us a favor and stay out of it forever. You probably don't know a single thing about cricket except sit on your chairs and WHINE!!! Yes, we played bad, we deserved to lose, but there were multiple reasons for the loss, such as:
1. Younis dropping Sarwan at duck, he went on to score 49.
2. Use of power plays by Inzi. You don't have to use all power plays right away...innovate!!!
3. Bowling changes...come on Inzi. Why bowl Gul for 7 overs straight when you only got ONE wicket from the first 15 overs. And for our sake give Rana a break. Gul should have not bowled more than 6 overs and then brought in during the middle overs for a 2-over spell. Same with Rao.
4. We should have got WI out for no more than 210.
5. Imran Nazir...use your brain...you are not Afridi.
6. Younis Khan...you should know better than that to play that ridiculous shot.
7. Hafeez...the way he got out tells us why his average is only 19. In 45 matches he has not scored a single century.
8. Inzi and Yousuf...take singles, keep the score board moving. Specially when you are playing with a short batting line-up. You can't expect to score 10 runs per over in the last 10 overs every time.

In conclusion, we played a bad game, but our strategy was the worst. Kaneria was never a part of the ODI team, why even choose him in the squad...this is the selectors fault. Abdur Rehman should have been in the squad. Anyways, considering what we have I agree with some of the comments above. Nazir should be out and Akmal should open. We have to choose from the 15 we have and we don't have any other opening option. No Younis should not open, he is the best player we have at number 3. Yousuf and Inzi are also fine at their positions. Hey, Inzi is getting old. He cannot be at the crease for a long time, which would happen if he comes earlier. Rana should make way for Sami and Kaneria is out and in comes Afridi. Azhar or even Yasir Arafat take the final spot.

With this combination we'll have four pace bowling options (Sami, Gul, Rao, and Arafat), three spin options (Afridi, Hafeez, and Malik), and batting line up to number 9.

HAI JAZBA JUNOON TOH HIMMAT NA HAAR!!!!
PAKISTAN ZINDABAAD!!!

Zeeshan

Dear Kamran:

The selection of Rana, Imran, Kaneria and Kamran, as we all know, has no merit. They all have been performing very very poorly. Other players who have been consistently doing well in the domestic cricket have been discouraged by the selection committe and the PCB. What is PCB doing? NOTHING! Who is the chairman of PCB? A person who has no knowledge of the cricket. Peior to the current chairman, we have an Army guy... go figure!

Anyway, aside from the selection, our team looked like a looser bunch. We could see it from the body language of Mhammad Yousuf and Inzamam. WHat were these two big guns doing in the middle of the crease? They wasted time and deliveries. I am sorry to say, but Mohammad Yousuf got out as if for an unknown reason he didn't want to play anymore. He tried his best to get out. So did Younus. Inzi built up pressure upon himself as well on the team and then got out.

These days, teams are playing with batsman-wicketkeeper. Why in the world are we still playing with a wicketkeeper, who can barely keep and cannot bat at all. Kamran is a failure. Get him out of the team.

Imran Nazir has no idea of being opening the innings. Why is he in the team?

Is there anybody in the entire country who can ask questions from PCB? PCB is solely responsible for these blunders, including hiring Bob Woolmer as a coach. PCB is responsible for the selectors who are selecting unqualified and players. PCB is totally responsible for putting Pakistan's honor and respect on the line. PCB is responsible for disgracing us and the reason for the embarassment.

Pakistanis had to be ashamed on the performance.But who are responsible for it. I am not a cricketer, but still i felt that there is no place for Rana in the Paki Team, Sami should play instead of Rana.
If mighty captain goes with the same team, i am sure, they will return Pakistan very soon.

Few questions for the so called Big Inzi.

1. Why Rana is playing? When u have Azhar.
2. Why Kaneria is playing? Afridi shoyuld play whenever he is available.
3. Why Inzi doesn't come 1 down or 2 down? Are you afraid or u have lost that touch?? Reasons Required..
4. Why kick Imran Nazir's bu...... Ask him to play properly.
5. Why dont you have an attacking strategy? It world cup Man what the hell were u doning when Lara came to Bat.. you should've set attacking fielding..

Now for me Inzi doesn't have barin to think smartly and quickly or may be he doesnt want to...

I feel sorry for all of my country men.. But this team has a track record of doing that.. its a hopless case..

Pakistan is paying the value of reducing Shoib Akther and Asif.

i know why inzi chose to field first, he dont trust his bowling side. well i dont think they are doing any good with the batting either. west indies, the team india destroyed, defeated pakistan by a big margin. who to blame? inzi have never been good in his captaincy and shouldnt have been the leader in the first place, he is a great batsman who can take his team to glory and thats it. we need a motivator like imran khan, or wasim akram. they lead the team from front. wasim bhai will come to bowl right away first and when he eases off pressure, then he let others to charge, thats how shoaib akhtar, aqib javed, mushy, and waqar were made, under great leadership. now, no bowler is there to lead the team from front. similarly its the same with the batting order, imran khan kept on saying that inzi should come early so he could ease off pressure for the team but he will let the youngsters take the lead, it could have been a decision if any youngster would have done a good job and been consistent. i am disappointed at PCB for the lack of preparation since 2003 world cup. we saw great players but had problems with all of them. none of the pakistani players have been consistent in this game when it really matters. every single player need to understand it is their responsibility to win matches for the team. and they should have been really good enough to adjust themselves in all sorts of ground. i hope they do not disappoint again.

I am Indian supporter and therefore support India. I am not amazed by the over-reaction of some of the Pakistani fans because we, in India, are similar after each loss. Pakistan did much worse in 1992 World Cup in the initial stages, inluding a 75 all out, - and still won the Cup. Pakistan has some of the finest players in the game and with a bit of luck can definitely reach the finals. I have very high regards for this Pakistan team. They might have taken some time to get over the loss of Shoaib and Asif but once settled they can beat the best including Australia. I differ with the writer only on the last item. Please do not blame the players as they always try their best to win. I sincerely hope Pakistan does well. Regards....... S. Chowdhury

And they offered to match to WI in silver platter! Bad captaincy, bad batting by all batters and bad bowling by Rana. First they gave at least 40 extra runs though Kaneria and Rana followed by poor poor batting by Inzi. Why was he over cautious, he made the things look so unnatural and slow. He lost the match for Pakistan. Openers r emain our problem. What can we deduce? a complete disaster like 2003? I am sure from day one that Inzi lacks captaincy skills. He cannot lead from front, i pray everything goes well in next matches and Pakistan bounces back.

The problem ith pakistan is that they have too many test players in their side. In todays match, inzi and yousuf scored what...13 runs in 9 overs! that slower than a test match scoring rate. If pakistan wants to win this world cup...its impossible. If it wants to win the next world cup, they need to sack inzi and yousuf from the one-day side. I agree that it will make the team hit their lowest point ever for a year or so, but the long term advantage will be far outweigh the low-points

To all my dear fellows who keep wondering why Rana is in the team, the answer is simple
his only credential is that he has a favorable domicile and so does half a dozen other players mind you,,, hehehe.

To all the fellows who keep insisting that Rana is a good bowler and needs a rest, "Get a Life!!!" the answer is yest again simple he needs a big swift kick in the arse and not just rest.

The same can be said for Hafeez, UGGGGGGGGG!!!!

Well next two games should be utilized to create a combination that pakistan has to go with in the super eight (provided they qualfiy !?!?!?!?!?!?)
I think it's time to send Rana back, Pakistan's better off with a 14 man squad.
i think pakistan has the talent to go far in the world cup, i guess i'm an eternal optimist like kamran but i feel that fine tuning a couple of areas can make pakistan a serious opposition.
One thing is certain, afridi is a vital cog in this pakistan line, even if he has to play at Kaneria's expense, then so be it. He's too precious to be ignored once he complete's his ban. Also sami and azhar should be tried out in the next two games to get a feel of the tournamnet. Rao and Umar did an adequate job and deserve to open the bowling in my opinion.

Every single one of u said what u had to say about pakistan team, but let me remind u that the pakistanis are the underdogs, and they were in the same situation in the 1992 World cup, and they pulled it out.But PLLLLLLLLLLeeeeeeaaaassssee take Rana out of the team and select me i think i can do better than him

I have to put in my few cents in. First of all.. Shoaib Malik should be opening with nazir.. then mohammad yousuf or inzi. These two players should not bat togather because both of them reduce the run rate to nothing. i blame both of them for todays game because they just let the game go pass by them. Kamran akmal should be out of the team and younis khan should be the keeper. This gives us the option of brining afridi in with azhar mahmood and yasir arafat who are all rounders. Kamran akmal is no use to this pakistan team he is big liability. As you already said about Rana naveed, i don't even know what to say about him. No one understands why he is still in the Pakistan team. I can bet you any money if he was Australian he would've been long gone. even India kicked irfan pathan and balaji and nehra out. Rana is nothing compare to them. But whatever i write and what ever you write, nothing is good unless it is actually done. So at the end i want to say is NO COMMENTS

i hope pakistan losses right in the first round. lets get rid of the pain right away and watch better teams cricket.
its better to take the bullet in the heart and die right away then taking bullet in your stomach and die waiting with hope that help will be arriving soon.

I agree with your statement on Rana, Its unbelievable how he is being selected even after such worst performance recently.

I think Azhar should take his place, and also Mohammed Sami should be given chance. This will add to pakistan's batting depth as they both can bat.

The pakistanis have to sort out their vulnerability of the top order batsmen very soon.

This was a match Pakistan lost rather than one which the Windies won. And the culprits? The top three of the Pakistani batting - Inzamam, Younis and Yousuf between them managed 82 runs in 25 overs, and lost them the match. The late flourish from Shoaib Malik showed how it should have been done AND spared Pakistan an embarrassingly huge loss.

good to see Pakis lose..
u guys are losers, hopefully lose against kenya too. i wanna see kenya and windies in the super 8's.

RANA, AKMAL and OTHERS

Real lousy performance by same expected out of form, un-reliable players like Rana Naved, Kamran Akmal,Imran Nazir. These players were good in the past but now they only can be classified as "BAGS OF HOPE AND ANTICIPATION". We just keeps hoping and anticipating that something good will come out from them but its the same thing again and again.
Streets of Pakistan are full of better bowlers then Rana Naved but our selectors just cant seem to find them. Sami is thousand times better bowler then Rana on any kind of pitch.
If a wicket keeper drops or misses two chances, that could be additional 60 to 100 runs and on top of that if he gets out on a duck, thats ridiculous. Whatever happened to Aminur Rahman.
Six on one ball and out on next is not very intelligent. This is what Imran Nazir has been trying to do ever since. Does anybody remember Hassan Raza's performance recently. Why cant we just try some new faces instead of same old Tom, Dick and Harry?

In simple words, Pakistani team is on the way back home very soon....keep my words ZIM will also defeat us. Like previous WC, we will not be able to reach next round......

Inzi is an old horse...have you seen him counselling Rana when he was severly beaten? ...look at our feilding...... They all are Mother f.........

Pathetic! Absolutely pathetic! I am ashamed to be a Pakistan fan today. Everyone with the exceptions of Malik and Rao let us down. Why does one good performance from Nazir guarantee him a permanent spot in the team as an opener? Salman Butt should have been chosen in his place. At least Hafeez can bowl. They need to make the best of their given situation now, and the real sad part is that they could have easily beaten the hosts today, if only for a sensible team selection. Why do they keep giving Rana a chance? What are they waiting for? A miracle? It is not gonna happen! Please, please spare him and us the embarrassment and put Sami in! And why can't Inzi and Woolmer knock some sense into the openers? Just tell them to stop acting like mavericks and put their heads down and give us a 50-60 run stand. That is all we need for our batting to click! I really think Inzi needs to go. I realize that he is still one of the world's best bats, but his lack of inspiring and insightful leadership, apathetic attitude on the field that shows no sense of urgency, and continued favoritism towards certain players costs us a lot more than his batting ever provides. Its a crime to have the talent like we do and do nothing with it. Another thing that bugs me is the inclusion of Mushtaq as the bowling coach in Waqar's place. Just because Mushy is Inzi's friend and can grow a thick beard is not reason enough to make him the bowling coach, when we really need someone like Waqar who was the best in bowling the death overs, the precise period where we lost this match today. Our young guns badly need his guidance.

But I whole heartedly agree with Kamran, there is a lot of cricket left in this tournament. We can always hope Inzi comes to his senses quickly and utilizes his resources to the best. Let's not lose hope.

well well, we guys in the sub-continent are very passionate abt our teams. All said and done.. I see comments only talking abt Paks performance. Come on guys give some credit to the WI as well. Samuels and Dwayne smith for me took away the match from Pak.

I cannot believe the negativity of some of the posts here!

I am an Australian supporter but for what it's worth, I believe that Pakistan can still beat anyone on their day. Their loss last night was not good but the WI are not a bad team either. Pakistan seem to be one of these teams who are shockingly inconsistent, and their worst is very bad, but no other team in the world would want to play Pakistan when they perform at their best.

Remember the 1999 World Cup, when Australia were beaten easily by NZ and then by Pakistan in the early stages, but Australia still ended up winning the tournament. Maybe some of the comments here are out of frustration, anger and annoyance, but I think Pakistani's need to get behind their team and not be so negative.

Don't give up hope, I don't think it is over for Pakistan just yet!

Pathetic! The funny thing about our team is that they are oblivious to it all, losing does'nt mean a thing; they are in la la land when it comes to accountability. What's even funnier is that they'd somehow squeeze into round 2 (by beating Ireland & maybe Zimbabwe) and claim they performed well when they'd go back to Pakistan, although they'd get beaten by every team in round 2.

It is really sad to see a Pakistan team, that has so much talent in its pool, struggle to reach 241 against a decent bowling attack, at best. Pakistan selectors and team management should have been sacked so long ago. Yasir Hameed should have been in this team instead of Imran Nazir or Yasir Arafat. What the hell is Rana doing when Azar is sitting out. The Pakistani managemnt destroyed the career of Azar about 7-8 yrs ago and now they are destroying yasir hameed's career. Don't they have resources to counsel young players to stay away from drugs? Mohammed Asif is a great talent wasted. Can't they give some kind of anger management counseling to Shahid Afridi? Abdur Razzaq should have been protected from practice related injuries. He is so important to this team. So much talent and so little management of it. Really sad. And I am not even a Pakistani...only a Sri Lankan. I can feel how the Pakistani fans must be feeling now.

Pakistan has a talent pool of 85%, but the team management and board destroys it to perform at 65%.

India has 75% of talent but the media and public and hype it upto 95% and pressure it down to 65%

Sri Lanka has only about 50% talent but they somehow manage to perform at 65% with good training, team-work and "limited" interference from the management or the public. There is something to be said about being a small country and less feudal in its administration.

It was pathetic performance by the Pakistani batsmen. I don't understand 'Why Rana is still in team?' It should have been yasir Hameed instead of Amir Nazir. Mohammed Yousuf and Inzamam had win us matches in the past. It was their performance that was reason for the loss... Power play and 13 runs in 9 overs... Come on.. I will not be surprised if they loose to Zimbabwe :-(

who wants to bet! there is a fair chance that Ireland will thrash us. Inzy please hang your gloves because everything else has been!

I would like to keep the emotions away and get down to reality and facts that caused us the match.
2. Inzimam and Yousaf did not convert the singles into double. I don't know what kind of cricket they were playing in the WORLD CUP.
3. Why the hell Rana is in the side-- I do not mean to be rude, but is it because of the reason that he has grown a beard????
4. Why Kamran Akmal is in the side--- He did capture some catches and a stump, but what about the run out and a catch that he dropped.
5. Kamran u r right this team can still do wonders and let us not lose hope on them.
1. Bad Capataincy: Inzimam could not keep the pressure on West Indies while fielding. Planning was so bad that Umar Gull could only complete 9 overs.

Early round matches are all about finding the combination. Pakistan lost because they had too many high risk selections. Nazir, Kaneria and Rana were all hero or zero type selections and unfortunately for us they all turned out to be zero's. You give Nazir one more chance to find some form otherwise you have to abandon ship once Afridi is back. Kaneria and Rana need to go now. We might say the bowling was good, but really it was just 3 bowlers who maintained any kind of pressure. Gul, Rao and Hafeez. The team for Ireland needs to see Rana and Kaneria dropped with Sami and Azhar/Arafat coming in. Then if Nazir fails again Afridi comes in for Nazir with Malik/Younis/Akmal moving to the opening slot. If he succeeds Afridi comes in for one of the medium pace allrounders.

You wait 4 years for a WC but it can slip away in a blink of an eye. If we learn from our loss it will be worth it otherwise....

kamran! Apart from the match result (which is undoubtedly disappointing though)I would like to question the PCB, Captain and the Board. Have they really got brains or are really brainless. I believe that if even a lame person having a little know how about cricket can be given a chart with the names of the available squad, their strengths & weaknesses and their past records, i can assure you that he can pick a much much better squad that the captain and management!!!!

Mr. Inzi! can you please give explaination for these questions:

1. Why was Imran Nazir selected in the squad despite continous failures? why overlooked Yasir Hameed, Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Asim Kamal ?????

2. Why is Rana included in the squad?? is he your relative...? why overlooked Shahid Nazir, Abdur Rehman, Yasir Arafat ????

3. Can you explain why did you left Umar Gul with one over remaining from his alloted quota of ten and gave the ball to Rana who conceeded 16 runs in that (which is quite ususal for him)???? Nonsense and absent mindedness!!!

4. why can't you bring shoaib malik on the open and despite of continous opening failures???

and many more ..... Inzi my kind suggestion to you is to kindly get rid of the captaincy and concentrate on your batting. A good batsman can't even be a good leader. or if you really wanna remain captain, go take coaching from Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Greame Smith, Fleming or anyone you like......

GOD BLESS PAKISTAN TEAM....

Kamran or anybody else out there, I request if any body can answer a few questions that have been irritating me, confined to the match.

Selection of Imran Nazir in the squad - well nothing can be done about it now - so we will leave it alone. Lets talk the match.

1. Why Rana, if at all he had to be played, was used at teh start of teh innings. Stats and facts show that he could be less embarassing at the end; and Rao did show some good form during whatever chances he got in South Africs.
2. Why did Inzi persist with the opening bowlers for too long? It was not only increasingly futile, but was also risky considering the hot weather and generally vulnerable physical state of most of our fast men.
3. Why are we forced to watch Kamran Akmal for an eternity now. Though some TV commnetators keep on appreciating him, I cant see why? He dropped Lara, but Pakistan was fortunate Lara did not punish too much. Then he also let go of run-out chance off Dwayne Smith when he had not scored too many. Smith then proceeded to wrestle the initiative from Pakistan.
4. Why did Inzi change Kaneria during the death overs when he took a wicket and gave only 3 runs in his last over. Considering that the WI batters after in the final overs did not possess very sound batting techniques against spin, and that they play fast medium as a routine in their domestic games, it was a highly questionable move.
5. Why Inzi does not come 1-down and let younus come after Yousuf. Inzi can absorb a lot of pressure and is a slow mover. If he comes early, he can use power plays without having to run too much. While Younus - having his best average at number 5 - is an accumulator early in his innings and can benefit from spread out field. He is fast between the wickets as well, and can nurture natural partnership with the likes of Shoaib Malik.
6. And finally, why were Inzi and Yousuf so painfully slow in their partnership. They sure are much more than we saw of them in teh match. That Yousuf would make a mess of three balls in a row, after spending so much time in the middle, and having such a calm temprament, is mind boggling.

Yes it was only a game. Yes I am not losing hopes yet. But some answers will be well recieved.

what the hell inzy was doing with the overs count. its utter disastrous captaincy if u dont give ur strike bowler(gul) his full quota of 10 overs n he should have been brought at the start of the slog overs to take a wicket and put pressure on the windies.inzy surely missed the point here.And about battin less said its better

i think pakistan should not have gone to west indies and it would have been less shame if pcb had said that our players are injured and we dont have backup for them so we cannot play world cup.
and from now on pakistan should not prepair for the next world cup as they usualy do after world cup and pakistan should only prepair for the series which they are going to play this would be better for pakistan cricket.

I felt an element of being overawed by the occasion in the batting performance particularly the starts of both teams. Even West Indians were very tenetative to start with but they did well to preserve wickets. Our top three threw it away. And the partnership of Yousuf and Inzamam was painstakingly slow. They need to rethink the strategy of leaving too much to do till the end particularly on slowish wickets. Younis is pivotal to the chances of the team. With unstable openers his position is critical. And he bats more fluently than Inzi and Yousuf. I have a feeling we will struggle in games where Younis doesnt contribute.

The bowling was not bad but Rana let off the pressure in the beginning overs. Additionally none of our bowlers can bowl at the death apart from Hafeez.

It will be very tough from here on. We will have to win atleast 4 out of our 6 super eight games to qualify for the semi finals. The team needs to immediately shed all tentativeness and bat more positively to give themselves the best chance.

i wont give up hope on this team, i think they need to set the right combination, if younis comes after 3 balls then y not send him open the innings, yusuf 3, inzi 4, We dont need Danish in team, Malik and Hafeez, and Afridi can do spin job, while we need to put Yasir or Azhar inplace or Rana, i think this team nees to gear up, and i am sure we will make it to Semi Final.

Well Kamran jee,,

I totally believe pakistan has wat in them to beat any side in the world including australia,, the differences u pointed out were true,, when u see a pitch that suits fast bowlers one shud have picked sami, the problem with this present pak team is not their bowling,, but their batting, for the starters imraz nazir cud be the perfect 12th man, he is there in the team only for his bowling, afridi comes in and takes his spot for sure, younis khan shud do a dravid, i mean the wall, he is the player who can do a sheet anchor like a atapattu, he needs to be told that, there is no point in arguing abt afridi's form, but he needs to be in the team just for his fielding and bowling skills,, kaneria is a totally different bowler, kaneria flights the ball, afridi is flat and quick, and i seriously believe that pak has lost the match by the partnership betn inzi aur mohd yousuf, i seriously believe that they shud sack woolmer, get waqar younis as coach, waqar has so much experience and he knows the players well and he knows when to use a bowler and when not to,, woolmer openly writes off chances of pakistan, there is no self confidence in the team, i want pakistan to do well, let them meet a specialist for this and get their minds stable, u cant take zim lightly,, for me, india vs pakistan at the final is the best possible thing,
in 92 it was pak which won the cup, in 96 it was sl vs aus, and sl won the cup, in 99 it was aus vs pak and in 03 it was aus vs india, it shud be an all asia final and it shud be india vs pakistan at the cup and india winning it by a last ball six like javed miandad,, thats a fantasy though,, but i want to cheer for pakistans and i want pakistan to come out blazing in the super 8s and win all the games except india,,
india vs pakistan in the final, it might happen, naaah, it will happen,,,,

i was thinking the exact same thing kamran. but u failed to mention bad captaincy by inzi. He kept playing spinners when they were being hit. They should have brought hameed in place of arafat. They didnt even pick their team right. Azhar should have been included and anyone but RANA. hafeez needs to come down order. open with afridi ...he will play same shot up or down. malik should also be up the order....but most importantly I think inzi needs to consider solving the opening issue with one of the big three. its not like they dont come in by the 2nd over anyway.

We paki fans believe that this team will get somewhere in this worldcup. Well, all my life what I have seen is that in any team sport you have to have 60% very good players and rest good to win chapionships. This team has about 30% very good and rest are mediocre. Our chances of making waves in the world cup???? minimal!!! I would say less than 30%. (we do believe in miracles - dont we?) Let us be realistic. Since last world cup (2003) we had been playing the butts, the farhats and the omars ... and now out of nowhere we have the nazirs!!! We had been training the maliks at one down - now we have him slated at 6. A simple analysis reveals that we have a decent middle order and that is all about it. We have very ordinary allrounders. No openers at all. Lower middle order has seldem performed. Fielding is embarassing at times and bowling - well, well, well!!! We always say "on paper we are the best in the world" and I guess, that says it all. We do not have any sting in our bowling. You must have two to three top notch bowlers who can deliver (not on paper) to pull a one day match. Perhaps, my analysis are too perfect - in reallity, you have some weak areas and others compensate for that. We really are half a team. Younis, Yousaf and Inzy - Great! Malik and Gul in the making and are good. Who else???? You can NOT win games consistently with only these guys. Other players do not stand up when needed. Scoring runs and taking wickets in non-important matches do not count. I guess, many of us can do that too. It is the temprament for high presure matches that makes them stars. This is where coaches come in. And, unfortunatly, the woolmers have failed. Pakistan and WI can play for next 10 days with the same teams and I am sure Pakistan will win at least 8 of those matches because no-presure. And, if every match will count towards getting somewhere in worldcup - I doubt if we will win half of them.

Kamran Abbasi is an eternal opptomist. And, I would love to see the team of my country, Pakistan, flying or at least putting up a fight that we can be proud of. The way they had been losing lately is so embarassing. It clearly shows that there are some political issues in the team. We were not like this couple of years back.

I hate to do the captian's and coach's job of picking the team. However, I do see that Rana needs a break. Akmal and, perhaps, Nazir, need it too. Make some adjustments please. Mr. Huq, drive the team. Forget about english/urdu etc. The only thing you do best is let your bat talk. Let others translate it. And, I know, you still have it in you. You guys are supposed to be the best in the country. Make us proud.

Yeah, Mr. Abbasi, "Abondon Hope? Not yet!" I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping to have a good run. It wont be possible until some 'medicore' guys decide to become stars!!!

Mr Akmal, you are bang on. This team has only Australia standing in its way. Nobody else. I can say the same for Bangladesh as well. They have the fire-power to beat anyone save Australia. What a vague and silly stand to take. Its a different matter that neither Bangladesh nor Pakistan will 'play to their true potential' and reach the final.

Yesterdays match was very average, there was no spark about Pak performance. If the other teams choose to self destruct then Pak have a chance.

This is long tournament. Fortunes and form can change. In a long tournament there is also the self destruct ability of the Pak team to be taken into consideration. Unfortunately for you Imran is protesting outside the supreme court and Inzi is on the field. Wish it was the other way round.

Only team that can beat this pak team on skill is Australia !!! C'mon give us a break. If you assess the strength of a team only in paper then the Indian batsmen should put scores in excess of 300 every time they go out. Of course, on their day any team can beat any other team in one day cricke but to do it consistently, with skill you also need good sense and cool temperment which very few players in sub continent can boast of. I will put my money on Newzeland to cause a few upsets than Pak or India.

Right Kami, all Pakistan need is to get Afridi in for Nazir, Sami in for Rana and we have a game on. I would not drop Kaneria for Afridi, they both can play and Kaneria is bowling well, he will improve with the tournament, I was glad to see him put Lara in a tangle.

I blame:

Poor captaincy
Mediocre fielding
Bowling without strategy
Immature batting

AND overall unprofessional attitude.

Everything went as predicted. No surprises from both sides. WI did not have big names in their side but they showed immense commitment as a team, which paid off. Pak struggled, as usual, in nerves and motivation department.

I dunno but I don't see Pak as a team, I see them as 11 guys all trying to do their own thing, and the captain never seems to interfere and make an impression. If they want to reach as far semi finals they'll have to play as a unit..

It looks unlikely in Inzi's leadership though..

The weak spots of the Pakistan team are obvious to all who have watched them play in the recent past. Yes, we do not have quality openers, our bowling attack lacks bite (as Shoaib and Asif have essentially not been a part of this season)and we are plagued by inconsistency (Mohammad Yousuf excluded). Still, there is potential, but it has to be seized and the strongest XI available have to be chosen. To me, playing Hafeez has always been an exercise in futility. Yes, the man bowls decent off-spin, is an above-average fielder and can bat a bit. But we are using him as an opener from where he has never done anything for Pakistan (as far as I can remember he has never done anything of value with the bat). If one were to go back and look at previous scorecards, Hafeez invariably takes up 25-35 deliveries for scoring a meagre 10-15 runs. Its a waste. He is not worth a place in the side just to bowl some off-spin. In any case, Shoaib Malik is as good an off-spinner if not better than Hafeez. Moving on to the bowling; as it is Rana just does not merit a place in the side. More than enough people have mentioned this. He needs to go. With the options available Pakistan without a doubt need to play Afridi (once he has finished serving his ban) as he is the only one in the team who can provide a much-needed spark. Rana needs to make way for Sami recognizing the fact that Sami can be as ineffective as Rana, though of late he seems to have found the right channel to bowl. Regardless we need someone who can bowl fast and not fast-medium like the rest of our bowlers. Another change required would be to play Azhar. At the moment our tail is just too long. It may seem harsh to knock out Rao Iftikhar after he bowled well today, but this was a track offering help to the bowlers and none of the bowlers on display bowled badly. I would much rather gamble on Azhar than be stuck with Rao as a passenger in the batting department. Obviously that leaves Kaneria in the side, and I believe Pakistan must play him as he is the only one of our bowlers who can turn a match on his own. We desperately need a threat like that now that Shoaib and Asif are not there; and yes, I believe it is more than possible to play Afridi and Kaneria in the XI. Thus, it works out to Nazir and Malik opening (Malik should be opening regardless); Yousuf at 3; Inzy to bat at 4 and take more responsibility; Younis to be the fulcrum at 5 for our batting order; Afridi to be his mercurial self at 6; Akmal and Azhar to come in at 7 and 8 to giv some late order impetus and having Gul, Sami and Kaneria make up the tail. I do believe this line-up is the best chance Pakistan have to be competetive in the World Cup. There are 6 bowling options and the batting is shored up as well. Regardless of what I think, let's hope the Pakistan team management does make some changes because I do not see them giving anyone a challenge with the XI players currently out there on the field.

I have no idea of a team that has been inconsistent for the last many years can be a winner.When they play it seems they have no back up plans.Can anyone convince me the reason of having RANA NAVED in a team?By not scoring runs and get the overs going Inzi And Yousuf put Pakistan in a lost position.They should have played aggressively and should have taken the risk to keep score board moving and try to hit boundaries to put WI on back seat but they have done the other way.It is a sheer lack of planning and the tried and tested players should be out.What happened to Sami, Yasir Arafat, Azhar?

People have commented that team will bounce back, inzy needs to learn, rana need to get in rythm, nazir needs to improve ... what is wrong here ... Inzy is past the age of learning ... rana is overage for a bowler and nazir is makingthe same mistakes he was making when he started ... are we short of talent in pakistan ... problem is nobody is selected on merit ... if that was the case inzy would not be captin, rana would not be in the team and nazir would be home watching the WC. But nothing will happen ... so keep your blood pressure pills handy as you won't stop watching WC.

Some body need to do some thing...
whether its nasim ashraf or Mushraf...
cause what i think..the main reason of pakistani defeat, is defensive strategy...
i again mention ...that Inzi and Bob ...both are most coward/courageless/defensive pair of the world cup 2007...
West indian team is not best in class & they defeated pakistan in a shameful way, i still think pakistani team is not bad the players are really good , the only thing we r lacking is attacking strategy...at this point of time only one player needed to be romoved from this playing 11 and that is Rana Naveed, not only because of this performance but also due to his recent form in last two three series.
at the end some body please tune inzi which looks imposible so PCB needs to play some drama ( in which they are very much expert) and call him back home, coz i think even if he make match winning runs , his approach/defensive strategy will lead pakistan to defeat.
God Bless Pakistan and pakistani team

I still beleive that Pakistan can win the WorldCup. I u remember, htere was almost same kind of situation in 92's W.Cup when Pakistan lost 1st match to W.Indies by 10 wickets and some more matches, but later on team recovered and won the Cup. I beleive that if all the nation give them confidence and cheer them up we can win. an the peopole who are critsising at the momet will shower flower on them.

Can anyone give these suggesttions to the pakistani team officials as I don't know what they r trying to experiment for the last four years. Whether opening or middle order they are keeping on experimenting and not yet foud out the solution. One thing more kamran bhai, what about ICC recent dope demand? Why they r thinking that its only Pakistani players can do this?

Pakistan's body language in yesterday's match showed lack of confidence. Their bowling was good, but the batting was pathetic and defensive. It doesn't work that way in cricket. Pakistan batsmen are dumb.

So much has been talked about Rana here, but what about chasing 240... was not unchaseable... Pak must find good openers.. what about Shoaib Malik and Hafeez... Imran Nazir with 68 matches and just 7 50s and an average of 23 .. who was not playing for the country 6 months back ...is he the best the country has ???

hope...................you must be kidding.
Inzimam, You cannot make Omlets without breaking the eggs.

ha ha ha haa ha. i did nt comment on Kamran s last blog. i knew that pakistan team will answar that on my behalf. Mr. kamran this is called in English as " in your face". for you it is not still to be worried as there is a long way to go in world cup. however, if pakistan stutter aginst Ireland, beleive me it will be a very short way to go in world cup and a small way to go home. he he he. you cant win by just staying positive.

A – 1 Keeping the old strategy is better then experimenting new thing in huge event. We saw good performances by our opening pair n recent home series with WI, pitches are not too different here in World Cup, so keeping the old one seem quite rational
A – 2 Surely Inzi shud replace Yousuf at no. 4, becauz no. 3 spot is too crucial so its better not to disturb it.
A – 3 Well when you got no matchwinner bowler, then if you rely on your handy al rounders, its not a bad idea.
A – 4 Rana is a key asset for Pakistan, therefore he should not be dropped.His figures were Overs 9, Runs 49, Wk 0. So at least he has imnproved from the hammering he suffered in South Africa.
A – 5 I think Pakistan shod dump Sami as he has been provided with too many chances, not once, not twice, not thrice but too many. His stats shows how poorly he has responded with every chance he got. At least I will prefer Azhar over Sami
6 Part of the problem is that Pakistan have turned up in the Caribbean with too many bowlers and not enough batsmen. Which reserve can Pakistan call on if one of their batsmen hits a bad patch? Nobody.
A – 6 Pakistan should have pricked Yasir Hameed, as he is among those unfortunate players who severely deserved a place in the squad (as quoted in an article @ cricinfo). His ODI record since his return is very healthy, average easily over 40
A – 7 Well I think if Hafeez does not perform upto the task, Afridi should replace him at the opening slot, as there are already too many all rounder down the order.

I have give up on Pakistani team long time ago but I dont' know why i always pay top Dollars to watch Pakistan loose. May be I should start supporting Bangladesh from now on (What! that was Pakstan too...)

Pakistan's needs some drastic change in their strategy. Firstly, Akmal needs to go. He missed an easy catch, missed a runout, did S%#@ with bat and we are still paying this guy to play..

Pakistan needs a good opening pair like Saeed Anward and Aamir Sohail. I have a suggestion.. get some boys from Karachi street and I bet they can perform much better than our disabled national team

i guess pakistani team need a break.. a long one.. i am tired of watching cricket.. leaving the books & work aside.. focus on match & the end, PAKISTAN LOST THE MATCH, CONGRATS!!

all team should be changed.. start from new..

Remember 1992 world cup. Pakistan have won only against Zimbabwe in their first five matches. And then won the world cup. So anything happens....

I agree and differ on various points mentioned by you.
1. Opening by Hafeez and Nazir suits pakistan. nazir is hitter and Hafeez Solid. Pakistan is badly missing Salman Butt( i repeatedly pointed in my prev.posts).
2. Younis is not in form, so he should drop down the order. Younhana should be sent up.
3.4 specialist bowlers are must, so it is not question of long tail. Azhar mahmood has aged and is spent force, don't take him instead invest and play young Araft in next 2 matches it is better for future.
3. Rana to be dropped, i mentioned in prev. post the strike bowlers have to be Gul,Sami, Iftekar Rao and kaneria.
5. Sami is very much needed , he is got the pace . I don't why the match winning combination from SA warm up match was changed.
6. Yes too many all rounders and no specialist batsmen. Butt is missing.
7. Afridi was sorely missed in yesterday's match.
His energy could be the match winner in group of 8.
Yes pakistan can definately qualify for semis but for that they have to beat one of Aus,SA or India apart from other sure 3 wins ( NZ,Eng,SL).

Pakistan won't even make it to the semi-final, let alone win the cup. Without the dope-influenced Akhtar and Asif, their chances of winning a match against any test playing nation are zero. Not that those two dopers really deserve to play international cricket. Even the success of their batting is hopelessly dependent on Mohammmad Yosouf and Younis Khan's form, who are the only consistent batsmen in their line up. And given their famed inconsistency, even a miracle can't help them win their next eleven matches.

The team has potential but i guess they had too less time to prepare playing without their match-winners as all the Shoaib,Asif saga including Razzaq happened at the last moment.
Kaneria is fine for now but once Afridi comes he should be out, while Rana on the other hand should be sent to Pakistan.

Dear Kamran,
The players badly need a shave.We would like to have a clean shaven team.Those beards are an eyesore. The cricket field is for the game of cricket not for display of one's Religiosity.

this is in response to Sagar at March 14, 2007 12:48 AM :

hey man, we dont need you to discourage us by reminding us about the injuries of shoaib, asif, and razzaq. WE WILL WIN THE WORLD CUP! RIGHT BACK AT U, IN UR FACE!!!!!!

Hey Kamran, do'nt be euphoric. Any team can win on
any given day out of eight regular teams. On what
base u say Pakistan still can win the cup? Pak has
10% chances of winning the w.c. and I am being generous. If that happens, U want to be the man oh, I told u so. don't u? By the way, u guys want to trade Imran Nazir for Virendra Sehwag? they both r worthless.Lol.

Funny how the bad performance of Pakistan's cricket team makes Pakistanis so emotional and feeling generally depressed. Even if Pakistan wins the World Cup, what will that change? Sport really does appear to be an opiate for the masses....otherwise there are many other things that Pakistan and Pakistanis also need to think about and ponder which they don't appear to be doing.

Rhetoric is damaging to the team and fans, and media in the sub-continent feeds on it. I say that for India too. The media should take some time out to think before they speak, and in this case I don't see how Kamran is behaving any different from his salvager Inzamam, they can both start by taking accountability. If they begin taking responsibility for their actions, they will be more careful next time and work harder to avoid eggs on their faces. It is the educated public's duty to hold these people to their words, so we can get improved representation from them next time around.

My first surprise was to see the decision to bowl first. Second surprise to see Rana with the new bowl. Kaneria did not stand tall in his first ODI since ages. Gul and Rao did very good job as well as Hafeez. Although 242 was very achieveable target I knew it won’t be easy. WI has a very good bowling attack and it was always their batting which was letting them down. If they score 220+ in a game it would be hard for any team to beat them. In this context the drop catch by Younis and bowling by Rana helped WI cause. Shoaib Malik is such a gem, a lone fighter. Most people on this blog have really very short temperament. One defeat and they have gone crying like kids- chaos every where like fleeing troops being hit on their backs. Please stop talking about who should have been in the wc squad and the talk of sacking of players/coaches. Focus on the job at hands. The next two matches are not going to be easy but I am sure Pak team will win them both and all these crying spineless kids will be back on the bandwagon with their drums and trumpets. Winning and loosing is part of a game and one is not a sportsman if shows no sportsmanship. It is disappointing to see seasonal fans, like frogs in the Monson, making a lot of noise. Mind you- desperation leads to disappointment. I have noticed that many people on this blog are forgetting that Afridi was banned for four ODIs and he still has one more game in which he can’t play. So for next two matches I would like Rana, Kaneria and Imran Nazir out and bring Sami, Azhar and Arafat in. Open bowling with Gul and Rao. Open batting with Malik and Younis hence Yousaf and Inzi moving on 3 and 4 respectively. Hafeez can come at 5 then. When Afridi will be available then we can drop the worst performing all rounder in the next two matches. I am one of those who can’t quit dreaming so I will be the last man standing for my team. Pakistan all the way.

Hi kamran

obviously inzamam does not have a think tank anymore...his own thinking is pathetic...despite having relatively good one day pacemen at home he continued with relative failures like sami and rana naveed...bringing in kaneria late in the day was a surprise but a batsman who can push his left foot forward can play kaneria with ease...the other teams have better batsmen than our team...the surprise was letting west indies bat first...while west indies seem tobe good chasers he should have loved to bat...the opening problem seems problematic...we have nobody else to bat at number one apart from shoaib malik whom we need at six...they could try azhar to open the innings...bat first i say on a normal pitch and kaneria and hafeez will be effective bowlers...and obviously if u hit a six on the first bowl u should be careful on the next bowl as the good bowlers will bowl a fuller length to imran nazir...those are the problems and it might be better to slot in kamran akmal at number three so the middle order.. our best four know what to do...if wickets fall early bring in shoaib malik at four...playing an extra paceman should have been the way to go on this pitch...with two off spinners kaneria can be rested...although he did not bowl badly...he did not know what todo when samuels went after him...a leg spinner if he is just a few inches short can be hit by most good batsmen...pakistan may feel the absence of a left arm leg spinner...maybe one of the batsmen should practice throwing in a few overs of left arm leg spin...

What I fail to understand is why do we guys have to play the famouse "conventional" cricket which involved a quickie to bowl in the last 4 - 5 overs??? when malik & hafeez were bowling superbly, why take them off??
In response to Ricky's cricticism, well considering the fact that we were out of our main bowlers, restricting them to 240 was a good effort. Even Australia in the recent times have conceded over 100 runs in the last 10 overs, Pakistan have more then once, thrashed their opponents with a 10 - 11 runs per over in the last 10 overs. So keeping this mind, u do expect to give away some runs in the last few overs. But then again i do agree with Ricky to a certain extent, they shouldnt have allowed lousy players Dwayne Smith to smash the living day lightes out of them like that.
All in all, it was a disappointment to see us not able to chase down a total of 240 odd.

Dear Kamran , I tend to agree with you to the extent that there is a long way to go in this competition and we should hold drawing our daggers.HOWEVER call it my instinct or a measured prophecy ! , I expected the selection to be the same and I expected them not to last full 50 overs perhaps it was my hunch feelings that the YOYOs have not hit the right rock bottom sopt yet in order to bounce back in their upward swing . Considering the resolve and determination displayed by the Zimbabway's Team Leader " To play on the in consistancy of the WI & PAK " In my humble opinion , they have been now given a golden chance to make this Group D a 3 way fight for the 2 super 8 slots fro this group.
NOW about the stretegy ! There is NONE , You are over emphasising & OVER SIMPLIFYING by only mentioning Australia team ,But before this team of YOYOs in Green could dream to reach that stage , they have to come far lesser hurdles in the shape of BD,SL,IND,SA,NZ and by looking at the pathetic way they showed against WI , YOu must be asking too much from them to reach a stage of 1999 and then crumble likewise too .

I will be more than happy , if they can qualify the group stage ahead of ZIM , by beating CAN too .... finger crossed will not help , prayers will not be listened , constructive hard work will be the key to achieve that , CAN This LOT of Green YOYOs do that ,,,,,,,,,,, let us wait & see before we take them & throw to the wolves

They will rise again.. But when nobody knows. Rana should be out and Azhar or Sami must be played. In opening slot there must be a regular with good defence opener like Yasir Hameed. But our think tank did not bring him in this squade. No backup for batsman. This is not good. Malik should bat on No.3 or Inzi on this number. Younis should on No.6. Must insert some allrounders in the team because we played much with allrounders and suddenly. No one is seen in this team combination. Imran Nazir must try to stay till 20th over. Because every opener whome recalled always came with BLAST inning but after some time he totaly failed even to survive. I am sorry to say but Pakistan chances in this WC is very bleak.

In reality the Pakistan side looks pretty toothless at the moment. No real edge in the bowling although both Gul and Iftikhar both kept it tight up front. But neither were likely to run through the order, only picking up wickets when the batsmen started throwing bat at ball. The lack of strike bowler was blatantly obvious.

Can you play both Afridi and Kaneria - sure! One is a bowler, the other an alrounder. But more importantly Afridi has been in good form with the ball. Too bad about the ban!

The game lost when Inzy and Yousuf just couldn't rack up more than 3 an over. How many times the commentators pointed out that not a single 2 or 3 was run! Inzy should open if he just can't run!

Positive is that Akmal is finally holding onto the ball. Too bad his batting hasn't come off. But first things first, if named the man with the gloves, make sure you catch the ball. The runs will come.

Rana... poor bugger. Although his stats rate him one of the best death bowlers it has been ages since he bowled a good spell. Don't blame him, blame who picked him! If a player isn't good enough he should not be chosen. It's as simple as that.

I have not given up hope , its a painful loss but hopefully pakistan can learn from this defeat and come back stronger. kamran your points were spot on there , and you have summed up what many of the fans are thinking and some definate changes for the remainder of the world cup should be made immediately !

*Rana out for Azhar Mahmood, we need an allrounder who can both bat and bowl and be consistent and we need depth and most of all, how blind can the pakistani management be we all can see rana is off form and has been for a while but yet they insist in including him , why why why ????

* Sami in Kaneria out , we dont need an extra spinner cuz afridi spin is very effective in ODI , malik and hafeez can be the spinners and can all do a fine job also we need 4 seam bowlers 3 is obviously not enough esp if one is off form , and sami can be a matchwinner

* Afridi in and Nazir out , afridi needs to play and he can do the job nazir does but more effectively

the 11 that should play and in this order !

1. M.Hafeez
2. Y.Khan
3. M.Yousuf
4. Inzi
5. S.Malik
6. S.Afridi
7. K.Akmal
8. A.Mahmood
9. M.Sami
10. R.Iftikhar
11. U.Gul

only if this team plays and in that order will we have any chance of winning matches in this world cup agaisnt good sides,if they dont want one of the big 3 to open then send in malik at 2, but the question is can inzi and woolmer see that ?

also you cannot blame the defeat solely on Rana, the batting was to blame , nazir and hafeez and younis all got themselves out with extravagant shots that were not needed, yousuf and inzi one of em should have taken responsibility and stayed till the end espeically since they batted at such a low run rate, akmal simply horrible batting , malik the only bright spot in the batting

kamran bhai .... i am completely blown away by rana
s inclusion in the team... i m sure there are much better and talented bowlers in the local scene... maybe his selection is based on his beard or apparantly religious zeal!?

Pakistan should start planning seriously for the next world cup, and should also use this world cup as an opportunity to build a team. There is a strong core now which can be continued. Inzamam and Yousuf can be there for atleast a couple of more years, even though Inzy may not play another world cup. Afridi is still good and so is Gul. Whenn Asif comes back, he can fit back in nicely; so will Razzaq when he regains fitness. Rao Iftekar is shaping out well and so is Shoaib Malik. The worries? We need to get rid of the keeper, get a new spinner, a couple of fast bowlers, and a whole new set of batsmen. We need a couple of good openers, the past few years I have not seen many better than Yasir Hameed and Salman Butt. As for Yunus Khan, I think he is overrated and not good at all for the one day format. Else he be asked to do wicket keeping and justify his place in the team, something like what Rahul Dravid used to do for India. And yes, some new fast bowling prospect with real pace would be a great thing for Pakistan.

Well Kamran, first of all you've got to stop thinking only about Australia, and start taking one game at a time. Inspite of losing consistently, you keep insulting other teams. Its an open World Cup and each team is capable of beating the other. It may well turn out that you beat Australia, and lose to every other team (minnows excluding).

did pakistan throw this game despite ordinary performances from gayle and chanderpaul...?there seemed tobe too many easy chances for kamran akmal behind the stumps and than he got out for a zero...imran nazir must realize that nobody is going to give him any short balls...while both sides did not need to win this game the ICC should investigate deliberate bad plays...?

Problem is that your key batsman should bat at number 3 position, and inzi comes at 5 or 6. He should take the responsibility and should lead from the front if he wants to leave any impact on his last world cup outing

One major reason of the failure..they are not reading the one-day game correctly..at present they are not sure how to play and win a one day match...i can do nothin but feel sorry for the team and the fans.

I don’t understand why our opener are in Harry. I suggest Inzy should tell them to stay at crease at least 10 avers even without any run. And please remove Rana immediately.

Well, a disappointing start to yet another World Cup. I hope your high spirits can keep us interested in this tournament as my son was questioning the strength of Ireland last night (hope we defeat at least the non - Test playing countries).

As for your concerns about the strategies, here are my thoughts:

MOHAMMAD HAFEEZ . . . personally I do not have anything in his favor. If he is selected as an opener, he has to prove it. Averaging 18 with a strike rate of 55 after 50 odd ODI's do not support his selection at all. Imran Nazir remains another no brainer (we are grooming another Afridi) and he needs a role model on the other end. The only way we can move MoYo and Inzi up the order (#3 and 4 respectively) is by making Younis Khan open. My view is that he comes to bat within first five overs in 2/3rd of the games, so why not open the innings. Shoaib Malik is another good choice for opening slot, but he provides support down the order at the end of the innings. If Hafeez's role is appreciated as a bowler and fielder, then he should bat at #6 where he can provide with his 10 - 15 runs as he is unable to make anything better than that. An opener's role is to provide the team with 60 - 70 runs which I do not expect from Hafeez.

Why did we lose? Because of our batting . . . and its a historical fact. We are playing with a second line bowling attack which restricted the West Indians to a 241 which was quite manageable. All we needed was a support from openers and middle orders that did not happen. Kaneria remains a comedy in the field and did not prove to be the wicket taker as he has been 'wrongly' labeled, so Afridi should play instaed of him. You are absolutely right about Rana, and I think Azhar Mahmood or Sami should play for him.

At the end, words of praise for the extreme hard work by Umar Gul and Rao who performed exceptionally well and honestly I did not miss Shoaib Akhtar at all.

I am not an expert on Pakistan cricket but to blame a loss on a couple of players is a big mistake. Rana was the worst bowler on the day but I still think 241 was a very reachable target and therefore would have to say that the bowling team did it's job just fine. A lot of teams make this horrendous decision of playing the top batters lower down the order but in Pakistan's case it is inexplicable. If Windies play Lara at 5, it is because they have a fragile lower middle order but they do have some good batsmen at the top of their batting order (gayle, chanderpaul). Pakistan has been struggling to find a half decent opening combination and that makes it imperative for Inzi and Yusuf to bat higher up the order. In Malik, Afridi and Mehmood(if he is picked) pakistan have a decent lower order. Surely the likes of Asif, Akhtar and Razzaq are difficult of replace but I would still have to believe that bowling is not much of an issue but it is the batting.

Pakistan needs some character at the top of their batting order and it is upto Inzi and Yusuf to provide that.

Pakistan is too good a cricket team and too big a cricket nation to go out without a fight and I am hoping they soon find their form. This world cup still needs them.

Good Luck Inzi and keep the faith all you pakistan fans

After the pathetic perfomance in 2003, and the ensuing endeavour to create and groom a new team for the next world..which happens to be upon us, what exactly have we accomplished?? Nothing. The team is worse than 2003. We have pathetic old players ..Rana and Sami..what a choice. In a country of 150 million plus, we can't find three bowlers better than Sami and Rana..are these the best 2-3 bowlers from the population of Pakistan? What the ###k? is wrong with the selection committee and Pak's leadership. We won the Under 19 World Cup, why not just play that team or pick the top players from that team? Salman Butt should have been here. Imran N hasn't played in years and yet all of a sudden, he's in. ooookkkay!! Same with Azhar.. but no choice since The Man Razzaq is not there. Definately need Azhar and Afridi.. and as much as I hate to say this..we should use Afridi as opener. He can't be worse than what we've got, and if he clicks he'll take the game away.

Iam still hopeful for this team this is same team we had in 1992 world cup strange thing is in 1992 world cup we had opening match with West ind and we lost that match by 10 wkts but we are winner of that cup. They need to do same changes
Imran Hafeez inzy yosuf younis(WK) malik afridi mehmood gul sami rao

Finally you have written something that I admire. No Rana, please!!!
Inzamam's captaincy is also an embarassment. Perhaps it might not be fit for you to write at this stage, but, for God's sake, can someone ask Inzamam to at least try to think? He is usig Kaneria like a stock bowler, which is not why he is there. How could he not use him within the first 20 overs? I have been mentioning that taking wickets is crucial; if a batsman gets set at any juncture, the modern one-day game is such that, be it middle overs, he can single-handedly take the game away. Which means that the captain always will have to keep on coming at the opposition. It is like Inzamam has written on a paper who he will bowl, when that person will bowl, and to what field he will bowl. And that written strategy is ultra-defensive. If Inzamam makes a few wrong decisions by tring to think, then at least I will be happy that he tried.
Similarly, his captaincy has to come under scrutiny for the batting order as well. Why does he try to hide behind everyone, let everyone face the new ball, and then come when the ball doesn't move. If Yohana and Inzamam were there earlier, 1-down and 2-down, then they would never have faced so much pressure and could have played a more natural game. Yousof is our best batsman, he has to come one-down. After that, Inzamam should come.
Other than that, two changes in batting order can be tried; either Hafeez and Nazir open with Younis at 5, or Younis and Nazir open with Hafeez at no.5.
Kamran I am afraid Azhar Mahmood is not a solution to our problems, as Azhar Mahmood is not much of a batsman. If selecting him for his bowling is what you are trying to say, then maybe. This why Razzaq was just so important; he added balance to the team.
Hope will never be lost, but it will be very frustrating if Inzamam doesn't learn from his mistakes: strategy, batting-order, and team selection need to be fixed. God gave Inzamam a mind to think as well, it is not as though it would be raining luck from the top, and things will just happen. It seems as though, for now, anyone with a beard is 100 percent in the team. PCB's biggest blunder was to take Waqar out and bring Mushtaq in the team, as former was a positive influence, while the latter is a negative one. Besides, I bet Mushtaq is teaching Rana how to bowl in-swinging yorkers at the death. For heaven's sake, the team should show some grit, some fight at least. I am hoping we win the our next to finals: Ireland and Zimbabwe.

I agree with you to lose now than lose later, But if we are not going to win against team with low moral ( WI were shot out for 85 in warm up), then I feel it is going to be further difficult to win as tournament progresses.
It is not just peaking of Pakistan but all teams inluding SL,NZ and India shall peak slowly with more matches.
Pakistan's batsmen really messed the semi chances after a good display by bowlers.

I still believe Pakistan can turn the things around. India did it last time during WC after shocking start to their campaign. I agree with little switching in batting order during warm-ups. I believe Younis should open, because he takes the bowler with attacking approach. However, it is still hard for me to find the answer that why they shuffle back to old order today. No Sami, was suicidal; add to that was our lackluster fielding and inconsistent bowling. The momentum brought in by Rao and Umar was gone as soon as spinners came in. Another question though, and it is seriously on Inzy's tactics, whats the point of bringing Spinners so late into attack? I tried my best but I still couldn't find answer to that logic. Marlon Samuels cashed heavely on that surprise gift of Inzy's defensive approach.
Another thing is the absence of Razzaq. Pakistan cannot afford sleeping in the earlier part of their batting without him in the line-up. Today, it appeared very clear that Shoaib Malik was lacking the support and Akmal as usual and expectedly, disappointed once again. Seriously speaking on matter, I don't think Inzy is the right fit to be the captain of the side. As for team, I still believe in them but its just hard to find solutions after today's dismal performance.

I think Pakistan missed Afridi in this match ,he can provide much needed balance in the side by coming at number 7. Also pakistan shud seriously consider bringing back Azhar Mahmood, Pakistan has always done well when they bat deep.Also I am not convinced with the wisdom of playing Imran Nazir.Talented he may be but he has done a great job to hide his talent from the world(so far).

As you can see from last day's performance Pakistan has more than one issues to solve.
Inspite of WI didn't batted well still bowling looked ordinary (Except Gul).
Imagin Hayden,Gili,Ponting playing against this atack or Saurav,Sachin,Yuvraj u know whats gona to happen

Pakistan must at least learn to loose respectfully!

Kamran, I do agree with you that it is better to lose now and peak later. Well, that has been the storyline for most of the winners of previous world cups. but wait a minute. in 1992, pakistan had imran khan, wasim akram, mushtaq ahmed, javed miandad. They are greats, legends. well, this pakistan side has inzi and yousuf. Thats it!and inzi is not a captain of the caliber and class of imran khan. he has not been able to rejuvenate a "strong" pakistani line up. what is he going to do without asif, akhtar and razaq. And to top it all, afridi does not figure in the playing 11. Now, Afridi is a player who can single handedly take away a match from the hands of a opposition. On a wicket like today's, his bowling-flat, change of space, legspinners would have come more than handy. Atleast, hands down, he is better than kaneria, be it bowling or fielding. Kaneria is loved by all the west indians. flighted leg spinning deliveries are relished and slurped and burped by the likes of brian lara and pakistan have seen what damage lara has been capable of in the recent test match against pakistan when he scored a double hundred against them and mauled kaneria. Anyways, I strongly believe that, the team which can win consistently in the super eights can proceed to the semis and have a shot at the world cup. this pakistani side-sorry! no way!

Plz let us not lose hope. Take some hope from 92 World cup where also Pakistan was thrashed in a similar manner by Windies in the opener. Hopefully this game will charge our players especially the batsmen. We have all been worrying about our bowling but as a matter of fact, our bowlers held their line yesterday quite impressively. We just need our batsmen especially top order to be a bit bold now. No matter how strong middle order or lower order we have, they can do nothing if our top order collapses again and again.

Mr. Abbasi,

Eat the words you said about the mighty(?) pakis in your last column. I know this forum is full of hopeless pakis but I cannot believe that you write non-sense of paki cricket team despite knowing the facts. I feel that they missed afridi and razzak...

Pakistan can come back. I alwas believe that Afridi and Azhar Mahamood must be included. As these pitches are not grassy, it would be wise to send Afridi to open. Team must decide between Hafeez and Kaneria. Hafeez is probly the better option as he can ball well. Then you have Afridi, Mallick & Hafeez as spinners and Gul, Ifthikar and Azhar as pacers.

Admire your 'never say never' attitude. But having said that, i think if pakistan's problems were to be described in a few words, they would be :

1) Inzi not fit to lead, should be batting at 3
2) Rana is in the wrong sport, should be playing kabadi instead

I hope the team's management plays its cards right for the next two matches. Sami and Afridi should make a return alogn with Azhar. We should have atleast one top player in the opening slot (exluding Afridi)

The kind of starter pakistani's won't seeing

A hard to write the story of pakistani players trumble in the sabina park. A awesome performance of Smith & Bravo turned the game to the West Indies favor rather painfully as far as the pakistani's fans are concern.

If, I would have the opoportunity to comment on your points, so that I would prefer first to talk on the selection of MR. RANA. Not even a single man you found in Pakistan but INZAMAM who would have walid reason for his inclusion in the squas.
Even though Sami had a good enough performance in the warm up against the giant South africans, he have to sit in the bench during the opener.
Ha, I am feeling very sorrow and grief on the face exxperrsion I saw on the face of Malik, when he losses his partners on regular intervals.Hope he find the good one in the upcomings.
Yes, Abandon hope? Not yet, I am agree with my heart & soul. There is along way in the competition. Pakistanis to show their potential atleast now. Inzi, I don't want to see your painful face at the time of departure to pakistan. Best of Luck.
At last,

For those of you criticising Kamran Abbasi for sharing his optimistic views with us, you are either supporters of another country or wish you were, so go ..As for you Kamran respect for showing what most pak fans feel.

ReGrEt NoThInG FeAr LeSs

I will not say much, as already a lot has been spoken on this issue,for me, if anybody agrees the Dream team of Paksitan for World Cup should be in this order and "It remain consistent no changes", i repeat "It remain consistent no changes" ;

!!!!!Thats all nothing more better then that!!!!

No need to panic now as there is still a lot of cricket left. But adjustments to the team must be dead-on. I would do the following...
1) Rana out - Sami in
2) Danish out - Azhar in
3) Open Shoaib and Younis (Younis is a sudo opener since he is on the crease 3rd or 4th over).
4)Both Hafeez and Nazir should be sent 6th and 7th respectively.
5) Kamran out - Zulqarnain in....or someone who can do half a decent of keeping. Dropping a catch (Lara) and missing a run out is completely unacceptable...and then a 1st ball duck is insult to injury.
In Kamran's defence, he is a good keeper but declining skills at such a young age is due to lack of competition. PCB management and captain are doing disservice to him (kamran) and Pakistan by including him in the side in spite of such horrendous performances.

1. Rana should definitely be out.
2. Whats so special about Imran Nazir, how come he keeps coming back into the side? Afridi did much better as an opener.
3. Why are Yusuf and Inzi not playing their natural game? They were defensive and too carefull in SA, it didnt work, it will not work any where
4. The level of fielding in the streets is way better than our well paid professionals exhibit. How come our team remeber the street batting technique (Afridi, Nazir) so well and forget the street fielding.
With this level of performance, Kenya and Canada have a good chance to beat PaKistan. So forget the semis, concentrate on face saving against the minnows

I am an Indian and proud to be one. I would love to see Pak vs India in the finals because India is guaranteed the cup because they've never lost to Pak in a world cup match. Afridi is one player who scares me (most Indians) the most. I just love to see him play against all other teams except India. Have him open with Kamran Akmal, followed by Malik, Moyo, Inzy and younis khan. Then Hafeez and Azhar Mahmood and then the bowlers. Drop Kaneria and bring in Sami or Yasir. Now the Pak team is back to having a bunch of allrounders which is when they usually win a lot of matches. Go TEAM INDIA!!!

No doubt our team performance was disappointing ,to say the least. However, we should be aware of the fact that one test playing nation each from the other three groups would also be in a situation similar to us at the Super 8 stage. Not all would be lost for these teams. There is still a very long way to go. Let's hope for a better performance from Inzi & Co in the remaining matches.

Self belief to reach top is good. We should always aim for it, inspite of failures.
Pakistan has lost 1st match that does not mean they are not reaching semis. Inzy & his boys are totally determined. I like their fighting spirit despite odds. It is disappointing that they could not hunt down such low score. But I hope they shall learn from mistake. One of Ind,PAK and SL must win the cup and slap the faces of Arrogant and over confident Aussies.

I think we need to stop chasing balls outside the off stump! Why do we do it??? Especially with 2 or 3 slips up. Its better to just let the ball go, than your wicket tumble! The Pak cricket team needs to focus on a team performance in the world cup. All things done wrongly in one match should be personally corrected by the next match by each player. After all, the team is called Pakistan or by its respective Country for a reason right???!!!

Horrific preformance. Pakistan failed both in bowling and batting in view of the recent form of WI who were all out at 85 in the practice match.

Rana's inclusion in the team is based on only his having beard? This may be the condition for being part of the regular member of the team as this was the condition for the bowling coach. They should be sensible now as this is a team of a country and not the team of their town.

Well well well,,,after so much of an anticipation of at least a good fight from the Pakistani team,,we are left wid plugging our nails out at the end of the day coz we cudn't afford just biting them..Whatever happened during the bowling stage was all acceptable,,,but look at our batting,,,don't wanna blame any young batsmen coz they don't wanna learn,,they consider themselves out of the learning curve,,,come to Younis Khan,,a shot which Ponting cud only play once in a hundred matches that much stupidly or any other gud batsmen,,,no different were Inzi and Yousaf,,they don't even know what responsibility lies on their shoulders,,,can't they take a leaf out of the great Khan's book,,,he came up the order every time his team needed him during the 1992 WC but they are so much reluctant to come up...Shoaib Malik is the only batsmen who has been consistent for the last 5 matches or so,,he shud be up batting at no.3 if Inzi and Yousaf don't wanna change their position.Younis I feel can play at no.6 as he has been playing there before...Send Rana out and bring somebody else in,,if u need an allrounder,u have got two sitting on the bench,,,Kaneria shud be sitting out once Afridi is back,,I thought we missed Afridi and Razzaq badly in ystrdy's match,,they'd save us from such sitautions very often,,,but Razzaq isn't there so Afridi needs to be a bit more responsible,,,Let's just hope for the best to come,,,Never lose heart,,,learn from uUr failures coz ur weaknesses get exposed when u fail...

Yes! I read the above comments of different fans of crickets, mostly right. because still No strategy of Pakistan team. I didn't understand in their 1st & opening match why they played with 4 reqular bowlers. and why they are still continuing Imran Nazir as a opener. I they must think and they can use Shoab Malik as a Opener.
And Sami can play in place of Rana Naveed who is not in form.
They should play with new strategy and brave hope, then no doubt this pakistani team have lot of potential who can do every thing and will be won the world cup.
regards,

Inzy needs some jogging practice. That way he will be able to score a single when the ball reaches the boundry fielder.

Kamran...You have good sense of humour..Keep in Up....Hot Air will lift the air balloon....

Well guys dont loose hope. You never know pakistan might beat australia or who know West indies might any other matche of group D and pakistan might get on top...remember kenyas upset in last world cup.

I can't believe the amount of passion that us Pakistanis have, you only have to read some of the mail directed towards Kamran to understand it, and despite all those people who say that Pakistan has no chance, they still want to watch the game.Believe in the game, sometimes you have a good game and sometimes you dont.its as simple as that.its the beauty of cricket, and there is a lot of heartbreak in it.

But coming down to the match, in my humble opinion, I still say that the worst enemy of Pakistan is its own selection board, they can't seem to freaking decide what team to pick!!!like come on! you play your best eleven..but noooo, Pakistan wants to give the opposition an uneven chance to win and thus make its own task even harder...I am refering to Rana being in the side, its time to hit the road Jack...he tries hard, but there are no results, and in world cup or any matches, you need your consistent bowlers up there,or if he is to be used, someone plz show the captain what he is really good at...bowling at the death...use him like Wasim used to use Saqlain...give the new ball to Iftiqar and Umar Gul..bring back the all rounders!!Azhar and Shahid Afridi should be playing, Pakistan is bad at chasing totals, we need people with hitting ability, it is what Pakistan is good at, and since we dont have Razzaq, we need Azhar and Afridi..I sometimes wonder if Bob Woolmer pulls his hair out...I would!its hard leaving out Danish who is an attacking option in any form of the game, but really..he should be picked based on the pitch report i.e. if it turns or not.
The opening is a muddle, I can't understand why Hafeez looks so good and then throws it all away all the time.Its worse than watching Imran Farhat!Do they have a game plan in their mind???what is their thought process?do they have a physologist there?can he tell whats wrong????the self implosions are getting more and more contagious!
But in the match, everyone except Shoaib Malik played without any urgency...or sense of purpose, the West Indian bowlers, specially Corey Colleymore bowled well, but no one wanted to take chances against him, it was the same story in Pakistan, but the rest of the bowlers suffered, but suddenly Dwayne Smith bowled a couple of nice military mediums that took out the top two from the Pakistan middle order, but it was all done beforehand by the pressure being applied by the first three bowlers.and the pakistani top order which complied by gifting their wickets away.I still dont understand why Yasir Hameed isn't in the team???

Ultimately it boils down to how bad does Pakistan want to win the World Cup...it didn't look apparent in this match...once that hunger comes(hopefully soon!!!)then things will change.God willing...

Pakistan are a depleted side at the moment, so instead of raw talent, they might have to do somethting different for a while...(in the words of Steve Waugh..I think)not be a team of champions..but be a champion team.
Pakistan Zindabad!

Let us be clear. To qualify for the final four you will probably need to be beat four out of the following teams: Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, England. There is no chance of that happening. Pakistan will not qualify. So forgot about our team of beards -focused more on the hereafter than on this world in any case. Let us enjoy the festival of cricket and stop worrying about Pakistan's dismal performances. Kamran stop trying to find light at the end of this tunnel. There is none. These are not cornered tigers. They are born again Mullahs on a mission from God and on a hiding to nothing.

Stop mentioning India. India is a better team. Indian bowlers bowled quite well to restrict WI to 86 and not because WI were experimenting with their batting lineup. Also, Indin supporters are quite patient. I wish all the best to the Indian team. I am sure they will win the cup. India Zindabaad.

This is wat u call match fixing, i mean "doing favors to the world cup hosting nation". thats the only reason they lost today forget about rana, inzy etc.....now if they loose again bye bye inzy 4 ever i think which we desperatly need.

Kamran, agree with all you said, but just wanted to add, Afridi didnt play because he simply cant. He is on ICC ban and have to sit out for one more match.

I'm pakistani by birth and i live in HK i'm as passionate about Pak as any one else i always keep in touch with records and about Pak team fixtures but i get disappointed every time Pak team is in disarray as of yesterday's fixtures. its hopeless to see such talent going to waste. i think there should somebody else at helm of this side. i appreciate inzi's record and his passion about religion but on the basis of this one should not compromise the team result. I think Mushtaq should ne relieved of his duties as bowling coach.He must be replaced by some experienced fast bowler like Sarfraz Nawz or mudassar nazar. This prestigeous tournament should not be compromised any more. and Rana naved should definitely go. and shabbir ahmed should be brought in instead and according to icc rules he cannot be replaced now then Arafat and Azhar or sami should come in permanently at leat for now. Thank You

To all Paki bashers, SO what if we lose our first game against WI. We lost it back then in 1992 too and that was our first match of the WC also. We were without Waqar Younis at that time, and this time Shoaib Akhtar is not with us. Mediocore fielding and defensive approach, same as it was in 1992. Inconsistent opening was then a big problem too, and it was a big concern today as well. SO whats the big fuss about....I'll promise that ya'll see the revival...Just because we were caught napping today doesn't mean we are sleeping for real. And above all see the draws, If Pakistan end up at D2...we will probably see AUS, ENG and IND during the first week of super 8, and games against AUS and IND are not back to back, which would have if we had ended up at D1. I think this will suit our schedule better. so wake up!!!!

Kamran:

You have made some very valid points. I would like to add that the selectors, management, coach, whoever else, has done a horrible job in preparing for the world cup.

-They have been trying numerous number of opening pairs, never allowing one pair to get enough practice and exposure. This in turn causes unecessary pressure on the middle order which leads to what happened against WI today.

-They play Danish Kaneria in the first ODI of the world cup, yet when the ODI series started in SA they flew him back home. What is the logic there?

-They drove away Waqar Younis, who was doing a good job with the bowlers.

In order for Pakistan to do well they need to make changes to the playing 11 as well as improve their fielding. Unfortunately, with the squad that has been picked, the openers have to remain. I would anyday pick Salman Butt and Yasir Hameed over the current openers.

This would mean to take out Hafeez who I beleive is not a good opener and a mediocre bowler and move Akmal as an opener. Also take out Kaneria for Afridi and Rana for Mahmood. This adds two more batsman and betters the bowling and fielding.

It's unfortunate that Pakistan are without Asif,Akthar and Razzaq. If these 3 were playing and with the right team selections, Pakistan could have won the world cup, right now it seems highly unlikely.

yet another nail through the heads of all cricket crazy fanatics in Pakistan. Abandon hope? was there any to begin with?

Can someone please explain the sudden disappearance of a large poster on the ground ,presumably from Pakistan's New York supporters, which announced ALLAH BLESS PAKISTAN...

Pakistan like India is a mercurial team; on top of the world one day (beat SA in warm-up) and down the next (lose to WI in such a pathetic manner). However, in my humble opinion it still has the fire-power to beat the best teams in the world on its day. Wish you good luck Pak team; hope its Ind-Pak final and may the better team on the day win (no harm in hoping :-)

Well tell me Kamran Is Afridi your relative or a friend??He is one person who should not be Pakistan Cricket Team at all.We do not want Mr10%in our Cricket team on average he performs one time out of ten outings. Iam not at all surprise by Pakistan defeat. Every one is talking that our bowling department is weak. Yes we want our bowlers to restrict the other side for under 2oo runs because our basmen are neither capable of chasing 200+ nor putting a 200+ score as a target, so blame the bowlers.All I have to say is that India has a wall in their team and we have bunch of Wallnuts.I do not expect any good performance from this pathetic team.They should have been in a group with Canada, Bermuda and Ireland,to assure us that they are "Andhon mai Kana Raja".

Dear Kamran, I really respect ur positive attitude...a small suggestion would it be ideal.

Let the best play their best..
- Australis n S.Africa dont have good quality spin attach does it mean they are not going to win..
though I'm a core Indian fan still all the best..
Thanks

Chill. it was anyway the first match i an inconsequential group match. Pakistan will anyway make it to Super 8 with or without the changes that you want.
Thanks to ICC, these group matches are warm up anyways. Pakistan team anyway has the tradition on getting better (& i hope so it happens). It's important for cricket, it's important for sub-continent. We do not want the repeat of Champions Trophy in this world do? Do you Mr Inzy, Dravid and Jay?

I think after yesterday's brilliant performance Kamran you must keep quite now. When two teams play a match one has to win. Important question here is no matter you win or lose its part of the game but at least you must show fight I did not see any fight yesterday from team selection to on field performance. It looks only the date and year is changed otherwise we are where we were in world cup 2003. In World Cup 2003 at least we had an excuse that there was huge politics among Wasim and Waqar group we do not have any such excuse this time. We always said what we can do with out Shoaib and Asif our bowling is week but look at your batting I mean it is clear that they do not care any thing. The shots Younis, Yousaf & Hafeez played how come you justify such shots. Be realistic there is nothing wrong in being optimistic but reality is far too harsh you bowling is week, fielding is rubbish, batting is pathetic and above all you team do not have hunger for win. I am anticipating that Pakistan will lose either against Ireland or Zimbabwe and we will not reach super 8 and that is my prediction for you. You will have early holidays so enjoy

comeon guys, were here to cheer em boys to the end!
no doubts about it, that was heartbreaking. akhtar and asif were missed. afridi too, if not for his batting he was missed for the wicket breaks and for better field performance. but we knew all that didnt we? what we didnt know was we will be missing yousuf and inzi. they werent there. some golfer-aliens had taken over their bodies, cuz i didnt see the star-stroke players on the pitch and i sure as hell didnt see 600 odd ODIs between those two. i just saw a nervous duo who took the crucial stages of the match for a lazy third day test wicket. having said that, even after losing Inzi, we couldve made it,...malik was well capable of taking the reigns had he been supported on the non-strike end. how hard is it to leave the ball, kamran?

we knew we were goin in to the tournament with odds against us. that isnt my excuse, but it is the basis on which i pin hope for the next few matches.
a few stupid mistakes and they threw the match away. even without akhtar and asif, this one was doable. thats the positive we get from the match. we arent hopeless without them. we are, but not ability-wise. just a punch of motivation and more responsibility, and we are good to go.

yea, so im the delusional girl who doesnt know the first thing about cricket. i do, however, know what a die-hard fan wants. to survive the next few weeks, we'll HAVE to have hope, and trust inzi's boys,...they'll get up again. against ireland at least. and hopefully, zimbabwe. :S

Dear Kamran ,
It is not about losing the game , it is about the way we lost it , ok if we have lost by 20 odd runs or lost while going down fighting then nobody would have minded that. Winning a losing is part of game but fight should be there. Alas there was no fight.

India crushed West Indies by 9 wickets. Now West Indies sent pakistan packing by 54 runs. If India meets pakistan in the next round, just imagine guys......It will be like a God facing puppet team. Our team is totally sub-zero without the drug mascots (Asif n Shoaib) and injury ridden Razzak. Just can't imagine giving 50 runs in last five overs on a bowler friendly slow pitch.

Don't be surprised if India toys Pakistan as this is the weakest pakistan team ever to play in a world Cup. And remember we have never won a game against India in World cups.

Pakistan has always an amazing amount of talent.... out of no where they get bowlers and batsmen (not really fielders) Sri Lanka takes time to find quality bowlers as does India......
But the problem with pakistan right now is that they are just badly managed and not mentally there... this is a good team....... but they are not managed properly at all....and as for the writer of the article.....hes just unrealistic...saying they only fear australia..which is just stupid...

Pakistan may win the WC. They are the best when cornered. Though the pitches like yesterday at Sabina park may pose a problem. Bouncy, not much pace and seam movement.Indian batters also struggle on such tracks. Lets see what kind of pitches other venues have.

The first game of this world cup proved to be a
battle among equals, or should I say two unpredictable and mercurial teams. Pakistan started of quite well restricting the windies
and removing 'The Gayle force'early.However they lost the plot immediately in the following delivery as Younis Khan spooned a catch of Sarwan.
This break helped the windies regroup and re-assess their position and play according to the merit of each delivery. I thought Inzy missed a trick when he brought in his medium pacers when smith arrived. This allowed smith to free his arms
and swat at every delivery. The selection of kaneria was also a question mark.

It is my humble request that in future Pakistan should bat first and get out by the 30th over. Then it should let the opposition chase the target by the 20th over. This way 160 million Pakistanis could all go to sleep at 11PM instead of 4AM. I sincerely hope the Pakistani team would consider this request.

No excuse of injuries and unfit players. I feel that the bowlers have done maximum to their capacities. It’s big INZY and his subordinate Younus who let down the entire nation.

get dick cheney to shoot rana in the face then there's no way he can be selected. should take care of our problems. shoot him in the foot too - just in case.

I think there can be one solution if all parties agree, and that is to make Imran Khan the head of PCB or at least be given the task to UNEARTH the WONDER BOYS in Pakistan like he did with INZI before the 92 World Cup. Imran has an eye that can watch a talent that can go long way for Pakistan. This will be a big service to the country as we are not front runners in other aspects of life, Cricket was one where we could take our frustations out, by winning important tournaments. If that venue wil be closed as well then where will the people of Pakistan turn too. Kabbaddi!!!!!???????

Imran needs to go to the camps and hand-pick players. There is no system, unlike Australia, that can get you players who are ready for international stage.

I would request Mr. Imran Khan to do this nobel service to his country as he has done as a sportsman.

Its been four years since we started the so-called team building process (I hate to say that, that was a terrible mistake to let go of 6 or 7 World Class players because we lost 03 WC. Saeed should have been lept for a copuple of years on one end and other openers should have been groomed on the other side of the wicket. Mix expericne with youth, not just youth on the field)

This is the result of the so-called rebuilidng process and Pakistan People are paying the price.

Arrrggggg am I hurting!!! 242 is a low score in modern cricket and any team aspiring to lift the cup should have got there with 3 wickets down,…..Instead Pak made a complete cock up of it!! Everything that is wrong with Pak was on show in this awful surrender to a team that were never in the running. Inzi is hopeliess as a captain, he simply has no clue. He is a stubborn old fool who is long past any glory days he will simply not come in at no.4 to control the innings…… why oh why does he insist in crawling to the wicket at no. 5 with the innings already destroyed? And what did he produce…wasted over after over and let the required rate climb from an easy stroll of 4.8 to way above 7……creating huge pressure for whoever was gonna pick up this mess….(Malik in this case). Nazir and Hafeez are not openers, they are simply classed as Free Wickets for the opposition….

Kaneria is complete waste of time, Azhar was never good enough in his prime so what will he produce as a fat old man..Rana,no one could bowl so badly without being paid by the opposition, Yasir..I dunno why he is in the squad…maybe he is good at tea making..LOlzz

This team under Inzi has almost Zero Chance of beating any of the top 8… Mr. Kamran you need to study cricket a bit more before writing rubbish…the notion that Pakistan are better than every body out there except Australia is amusing….Did u not watch the watch the game?

Lts face it, Pakistani team is a mediocre team. It is selected by Ehteshamuddin, Jalaluddin, Wasim Bari, Talat Ali who either have played very little international cricket or mediocre creicketers themselves. It is managed by two lazy individuals, Bob Woolmer and Inzamam. Supposedly the key players like Inzamam and Yusuf and slow and do have the enrgy to play intense and long innings and carry the game through. Inzamam is a lousy captain, who doesn't have plan B and defensive in strategy. Younis Khan, supposedly another key player has repeatedly gotten oout to silly shots. Kamran, come on. I thought you had a bit more of a creicket sense then you have displayed here. Pakistan will lose to all teams except may be the two minor teams.

What is missing? Lead from the front. Actually Inzi is miss many oppertunity during this defeat. He didn't captiliz his bowling resources very well. When Kenaria took the wicket in his 9th over and gave away only three runs then why he bring back the Rana. The drop catch by younis khan is one other reason. Our fielding was very poor during the match. How we chase is totally unbelievable. Inzi and Yousaf didn't think about the target just trying to save their wickets and at the end it was all on Malik who played well. On the other hand we need to more aggression in our approach to win the other two matches.

I dont think that pakistan don't have the fire power to beat Aus. they can do it if it's their day.

Pakistan is paying the price of cronyism indulged by Musharraf . He appointed one nincompoop after another as PCB Chairman - first General Tauqir Zia , followed by Shahiryar and the biiggest disaster since then Ashraf . None of them have been good Managers and they do not know cricket at all . To cap it all , Inzammam doesn,t have the intelligence to be Captain of the Pakistan cricket team . He once again indulges in cronyism . Bad performers , provided they kkeep a beard and attend Dars sessions with him can keep their place however badly they perform . Naved is in the team becauser he has become a Maulvi so has Kamran Akmal . The Pakistan team 's humiliation will be as bad as at the last World Cup in South Africa . I can only hope Musharraf weioll have the decency to resign as Patron in Chief of PCB . Asahraf should be sent packing back as a Pysician and should not ever meddle in Education and Criicket again . Inzammam woul;d of course retire . We neet to rebuild crixcket once from scratch . Otherwise we are heading for the bottom of cricket rankings

The result of the first game was exactly as expected, nothing new !!

Some of our fans are furious only because they were wrong at the first place by having high hopes, and also because the warm-up matches gave them something to cheer about. Nevertheless, as always is the case with the Pakistan Team, they keep their worst performances for the most important matches, and so was it.

Seeing some of the above comments on this blog, I have to add the following:

Rana Naved .... no matter what we think, Rana will play all the games, as he was already close to Inzimam, and moreover, now he also sports a full beard, so welcome to reality fans.

Imran Nazir .... this ‘nut’ will never understand that he is playing at international levels, and that he can not finish every game in 20 overs. He played 4 games against South Africa, 2 warm-ups and 1 against West Indies….. with only one performance so far.

Shahid Afridi .... with Imran Nazir being in the team, Afridi seems so consistent and a mature batsman.

Yunis Khan .... seeing his batting and with such limited resources on our hands, we should also use him as keeper. He can not be worst than Kamran.

Mohd Sami & Yasser Arafat .... have these two been cleared by the ICC to play? I thought, ICC, have not yet cleared them to replace Shoaib and Asif. (any answers).

Danish Kaneria .... sub bhagwan ki kerpa hai.

Shoaib Malik .... he is the most stable batsman in our team and he can stay on the wicket, why can’t we send him as opener or at 3/4 ?

Bob Woolmer .... he can be most beneficial for Pakistan, when he should couch our opponents.

Pakistani Cricket Fans .... “Abandon Hope? Not yet”.

Hold on guys .... You Aiant Seen Nothing Yet !!

Yes u r right. Afridi must play and should open. Its Worldcup, not a tournament for experimenting. I think Kaneria's expensive overs gave West Indies some extra strength. Moreover, Kaneria cannot bat either. So Afridi is the best choice. Pakistan is lacking the allrounders like Razzak in the down order and thus Azhar Mahmood should be given chance.

Dear Cricket lovers,
bowling was Ok except Rana. Batting perfomencances were not upto mark of Yonuis, yousuf and Inzaman, all looked terribely worried about the tension they had and did not bat freely. Fielding and bowling was not good inuf and should have restricted to 210.
Pakistan with this type of attitude will not go much further.

Mr. Kamran, how could we get rid of from Rana. I am damm sure he will get more chance in coming matches. Every one is writing blog against Rana but i dont know these blog could have any value for the captain??

Pakistan should learn lesson from the opening match .When you missing your specialist Bowllers, you should include the all-rounders.Azhar , Yasir and Afridi ,should replace , Rana ,Danish and Nazir. these changes will Boost your Batting power.

Well....All I can say is keh rana naved needs to be cut seriously sami's better than rana for sure and hey wat happened to salman butt...he's a fantastic opener...probably one of the best i have seen for Pak after saeed anwar and he's a lefty too....and to have a lefty in your side is also an advantage....and if you look at our team we have no lefties....i believe changes should be made like imran nazir needs to go...seriously salman butt and afridi can open and yyy play your best batsman at number 6 ...shoaib malik needs to come at number 3 and well younis he needs to go down the order....as far as the rest of the team goes azhar should most definitely be in he's our best shot of replacing razzaq....and inzi probably needs to learn captaincy or hand it over to some one else....and kaneria he's good but i think afridi can do the job for us.....so heyyyy selectors listen flowing beards r good but there's also something called talent and spot on performance......so please for the sake of world cup make these changes and if these changes are made then there's a lot of hope n a bright future.......by the way full marks to umar gul he's probably the best thing Pak have going right now....i hope Pak learn from their mistakes n make ammendments....good luck guys.....may the best team win n may (inshAllah)be it ours...

I think it is over reaction from all of us. First match, few hiccups are expected. Few days back, the sam WI team went down tamely to India.
Dear Pakistani Bhais, just forget yesterday's match, there is still time to fight and get the cup. Your friendly neighbour - Indian.

pakistan is a very weak team, the only way pakistan can win is being aggresive and attack. rana naved, sami, kamran akmal suck and the openers are clueless. Inzi needs to inspire from the top. Last wC team was star studded but performed poorly, this weak team can perform wll but has to play with good aggresive strategy

I think Pakistan can be a serious threat, like you say, if they play with PASSION. Without passion they will just peter out.

Right now, they play a world cup match as its a day at an office or a bank. They reach office on time, take a few coffee and lunch breaks and do some work in between. At 5 they head back home.

The way they should be playing is if they lose, their house will be put on fire.

They really need to let it all hang out, to give it their all, like Bobby Simpson says they have to hustle.

If you look at almost all the past winners of WC, they all HUSTLED, even though those teams were not rated highly but they played as though, it was a matter of life and death. Special mention: Kapil's India in 83, Border's Aussies in 87, Imran's tigers in 92, R'tunga's Lankans in 96 and Waugh's Aussies in 99.

The passion starts with the captain, and if he is not passionate, the quest for a World cup ends there. The rest of the team can do practically anything.

I have seen passion from Inzi rarely, the one moment I distinctly remember is when Pakistan tied the series in India a couple of years back, on the last day when Kaneria bowled beautifully and you could see the whole Pak team was fighting with passion, lead by Mr. passion Inzi himself.

Hi Kamran,

Ilove the way you have provided the suggestion and questions that you have raised for the pakistani team. i am totally in favor of you and your ideas.

its so sad that pakistan lost their opening match against west indies. its not the fault of only the pakistani players but also of the selectors. why have they included Rana naveed, the most expensive baller of the side who easily reliefpressure of the opponents, they might have gone for Sami. Also in lack of allrounder like abdulrazzaq where is another option i.e. Azhar who can both bat and bowl. well,pakistan don't need to include Kanerria in the side becuase pakistan have a lot allrounder who can spin ball and put pressure giving breakthroughs.
Well, much morepakistan can open the innings with younis and haffez or younis and kamran or younis and nazir. yousuf and inzamam should come in 3rd & 4th position. malik should be upgraded in batting line up.
there are a lot of things now pakistan need to relook after the first loss.lets hope they don't repeate the same again in future matches.
All our wish that pakistan win the world cup.

Kamran, whatever you are taking I would like some, it must be fantastic to go through life so unaware and unconcerned. You are watching the wrong world cup here.Yesterday it was only Australia standing in the way , tomorrow it will be Bermuda......

Kamran Shahib, it's only the first game. Don't worry, Pak will come around.

As expected, this is yet another miserable day for us.Though, I am sure, we don't deserve to win becoz winning doesn't mean to win a world cup title & then sit back & again keep lossing, have to respect the title, which our team anyways can't. so, let the better & respected teams fight for it, we went to Carribean becoz we dn't have choice.also, the way our team plays...its better to watch World Cup other games rather then our team. Our team or management are already with full of excuses (like, we don't have our best bowlers, so called all-rounder Razzaq etc, losers always ready with excuses, so we are), but my point is with the current team,even u can't beat west indies, what will happen if unfortunately we went to next round.....
For me, handling World cup title is more important then just winning it, neither we have players nor the mental toughness.The only good point of our team is Imran Nazir fielding only(to see our only 1 palyer diving & stoping balls for a change) & rest is all dump. I am diappointing with the team but anyways i am not expecting anything from them.

I follow cricket all around & have a great sense & respect of the game. So, for cricket, I don't want my team ... to WIN (sorry to other guys, but just ask yourself, do we deserve ???)

Enjoy World Cup

AssalamoAlekum,
& hello to everyone the only suggestion i have for my brothers and sisters all over the world who have seen last days match is that dont get furstrated with the way Pakistan has end up. After seeing such pathetic batting dispaly on such a beautiful batting track the only question emerged in my mind is that "Kia SATTA chal gaya ? KIa PAkistani batting SATTEI ki nazer houagyii"" perhaps i am wrong and God forbid if this is correct then next question that emerge in my mind is for what and why we are discussing the little issues which our cricket team knowingly or unknowkingly not going to work on, many of us didnt even took bat in our hand entire lives even then can understand, suggest and point out the mistakes of our team so how come those people who have cricket in their blood streams , who are paid for it and calls them selves cricket professionls dont understand it and how they can play with the feeling of 16 Carore people watching their coward display . I have heard that Sarfraz Nawaz already informed about it.

If its true then its a shame , and I pray that MAy Alla give Hidayat to those peolpe and players who are involved in it . And hope and pray that may Allah help pakistani squad bring back the pride of PAkistan which they lost due to their mistakes.

Stop crying over spilt milk you SISSIES!!

Pakistan matched West indies, run for run and stroke for stroke until Smith started bowling.Yes mistakes were made and changes have to be made but that doesnt mean the end of the world!

I suggest your team loses Rana and plays Inzi higher (so he doesnt have to try to accelerate).
For me I personally thought the only man playing Kaneira well was lara(smith and samuels are biffers) but then lara plays Murali and Warne well too, so thats no great shame.
Rao was awesome for me as was Malik.
I think, given a few changes , Pak will rediscover their fire. Stop doubting yourselves you fainthearted fans!! Do you think if West Indies had lost , we (West Indian fans) would have cried for our mothers like you lot are doing.

Your behaviour shames the team almost as much as Woolmer saying they cant beat Aus.(what a thing for a coach to say).

Come on they need your support not ABANDONMENT!!!

I think our team dont deserve to qualify for 2nd round, they shoud come back home and watch the world cup on TV, and learn how other teams play.
The team who can't learn from previous mistakes (South Africa tour where players got out hooking the ball way outside off stamp) should rest in peace. And i suggest PCB should hire a Psychiatrist for their brain washing.

Hi Guys

I am an Indian. I watched teyesterday's match fully. As an outsider, below are my concerns about the Pakistan team, where they are going/gone wrong

1. Rana Naveed is extremely lacklustre and he doesn't deserve to take the place in this WC team

2. Imran nazir doesn't have much technique or temperament to absorb the pressure at the top and give a substantial start

3. inzy is a damn good player but it seems now-a-days he is batting as though he is undr stress. He has nothing to prove anymore. He has to back himself and bat up the order and lead from the front

4.Inzy's management of his bowlers is not all up to the mark as Pak's best bowlers yesterday Umargul and Hafeez had 1 more overs in their quota

5. Inzy should think positively to bowl the opposition out instead of containing them. I am sure any other captain would have used their bowlers well to dismiss WI when they were 180 odd for six.

And as an outsider, I think this Pakistan team lacks a tactical and a positive thinking captain like Imran. I am a admirer of Inzy as a batsman but his leadership skills leaves a lot to be desired.

To sum up , Pakistan lost the game in the last 10 overs of 1st innings and first 10 overs of 2nd innings... In short, they lost the game in mind more than anything.

But I want to see this team gether themselves and come from behind and perform well. And the April 15 contest between India and Pakistan should be a cracker of a match

An Indian Supporter

Well well well... we can keep going n going on how bad our team has performed & how pathetis it is..... but when u cool down u will be cheering for them again :) so lets discuss what can be done to better the team. 1st step wud be to get Inzi out of the team (with all due respect), Rana cant last without him so 2 gone and a few more to go..... its true we dont have much choice there but still i would like Azhar, Sami or even Yasir in place of Rana (which i dont expect till Inzi is there).... i dont expect Pakis to go any further than next round but i would like to see some respectable performance from them.
Meanwhile, just remember there are seven other teams in the next round and we can always cheer for good cricket :)))

Hey guys, I understand all the anger you guys are displaying and I can see that there is all the stupid politics going on in the team and also among the selectors, but common people, some of these comments are just harsh. I know that we are playing like crap, but common. England, who started this game, has never won anything but do you see criticizm from their fans. Why do we have to act like stupid desis(same goes for Indian supporters) who lose faith rite away.
I am not going to be optimistic saying that Australia is the only threat. Kamran dude, we have threat from all the teams, even England and Srilanka, not even mention Aus, SA, and India.

We may not win the world cup with current performance and members but please if you do not believe it and have comments, atleast do not thrash them like most of the people did here.

Nazir is playing because Mohsin Khan likes him. That is the reason behind it. He has talent but has 0% consistency. Leave Akmal for now. Leave Hafeez also since he does give some spin option and take wickets. Remove Rana for sure, since he is really not in form and I do really loathe him with the bottom of my heart just because of him other young bowlers are not playing who may perform better. And whats up with playing Rana when they want to establish future for Pakistan. I still do not understand that, common remove that guy and stop the paindo favoritism from the captain. Also, remove Kaneria. He is a test bowler and a very good one, but he just does not have experience playing an ODI game. You do not want to give him practise in the world cup. Play Sami in his place for now and put Afridi later and remove Nazir if he still cannot play against Ireland. And you guys are rite, we did not lose because of bowling but we could been better. And that is why I am saying to remove Kaneria and Rana.
Inzi, you were the man, but you could be a legend if you stop making stupid judgement and for once take responsibility earlier than down the order, like Imran used to do. You have the talent but what the heck. I am sorry guys. I am just venting. Still, be careful about the comments you make for the team because no matter what I am still going to like them. Its in our blood, may be not anymore for the next generation but atleast my generation do believe we can make a difference.

dear kamran,our team looks very good on the paper but you have to go in the ground and get runs if samuels and dwayne smith can do it then anybody can.glued to the tv and you don't even get a fight thats pathetic please hafeez should be out of the team an average of 20.00 and a strike rate of 55 is not good enough for a opening batsman,danish kaneria and rana should be replaced be azhar & sami atleast fight for the glory or just loose the next match and come back home and spare us the agony of hoping &hoping?

I am a neutral observer and feel people are over reacting as it so often happens in the sub-continent. Let me tell you that this team is actually a very good team . True it is missing world class players like Shoiab , Asif , Razzaq but the team can rise to very high levels still. What it needs is dynamic leadership...to get it going

All of us are yelling our lungs off but if we can point out their weakness,,, why cannot they them self can identify the problems. The realty is that anything and everything in my beautiful country goes around not by the merit but by Sifarish and parchi. Leave Shoaib and Asif aside (later we may learn that Shoib was set it up and Asif got for being in company) why Yaser Hamid and Salman Butt were not considered in the selection, most of the ex players agreed on both of their temperament and ability to stay at the crease, well I know Yaser is still paying for his big mouth during the tour of India 2003-04 for commenting on Wolmer giving more time to his favorites and Salman Butt must have lost support of Inzi plus Wolmer Otherwise if Rana can be given chances why not Butt.
Team selection was made up with 2 openers , (both mediocre) 3 batsman (all of whom are world class), 1 Keeper (who is out of form), 4 decent all-rounder 5 bowlers, (teeth less excluding Gul) all of us knows that Inzi was planning his WC around the All-rounder, Now out of these 15 if you have to sit out 4 in my view they will be kaneria 1 all-rounder & 2 Seamers. With that lineup you have a bowling attack which is very weak and openers who will not score big, the pressure will always be on your batting and specially on the middle order, and if you play every game under the same pressure you may fail few times and on of that time was this game.
The whole process of selecting the team was wrong they have no backup plan but plain talk and I will guarantee you that most of them (non performers, Parchi walay) will be getting slap on the wrist after arriving back in Pakistan and next thing you will know that they will be back in after a brief rest and we will still be yelling out loud our lungs off to the PCB and their Masters. As Inzi says InshaAllah cricket will be a forgotten game as is Hockey in Pakistan pretty soon.
My only advise to Inzi is to stop taking notes on the team selection and match planning from wolmer if you are to stand any chance in this world cup, after all the man bluntly favor his home team.

Pathetic batting. Its time Inzamam takes responsibility for his failed captaincy, and lacklustre batting. He should gear up for his nonsensical missionary activities preferably in the Amazon since his cricketing days are numbered. On a bright note, his pal Mushtaq will exit along with him as well - how on earth can a leg spinner serve as bowling coach for four fast bowlers?..It simply makes no sense! Speaking of fast bowlers, Rana Naveed's bowling has become a huge liability - he must be replaced with Sami.

Last night i rushed to home and thought to have a reasonable match between MIGHTY Pakistan, and In Experienced WI sides. The first part belonged to Pakistan, and the target was certainly achieveable. The disaster was round the corner and i felt that on the 3rd delivery of Pakistan's innings. What the hell Younis Khan was doing holding the most important batting position in cricket. POOR pakistani fans, i feel dejected and certainly if the manner in which Younis got out is repeated again in future matches, i assure, i shall stop backing my team. Younis playes stupid shots at No3 position in Champions Trophy, SA series, and again here. Yousaf played well under Miandad's coaching at No3 slot, and its time to call him for this slot,and INZI must realize that this is his last chance to get something at the twilight of career. He must stop to think about 2011, and consider this as his last chance, only then impossible can be achieved. Overall it was a sad day, and i hope that they shall get their act right for furture games, else this time again we shall be giving WELCOME to our team, before "Super Eight round"

Dear kamaran,
I agree that this team still have something to show but what our experienced players are doing. we lost match just because of Younis,Yousaf & Inzamam.The kind of shots these player played was unbelievable the only player that has been performing consistently is shoaib malik.PBC again trusted kamarn akmal despite his poor wicketkeeping and batting i don't know why? Rana Naveed should be left out and Sami should be in the team.There is no place for Kaneria in the teams as well.

Because of the stupid idea of dope testing at the crusial; time , pakistan lost key bowlers and confidence. Non sense committee

Kamran, the only thing missing from your hand is a pair of pom poms. You seem more like a cheerleader than writer. No harm in being a bit nationalistic but some of the things you write is incredulous.

Dear Kamran,
You are spoiling your image as good thinker and composer by scribbling fradulant remarks. Pakistan, at no stage had an edge against windies in yestredays encounter. And you are still believing Aussies is the only team who can block Pak from winning the tittle. I Appreciate your positive thoughts at the same time i feel pity to you my dear freind. I sincerely wish to see Pakistan progressing to the next stage of the game, which is a 50-50 chance at this stage.. sorry guys it hurts anybody but the facts cannot be hidden for any more

Give a break guys! This was first game and Pakistan was playing against WI at their home ground and WI were really charged up after the thrashing that they got against india while maybe Pakis took relatively easy after winning their warmup games.
Asian teams are always slow starter and its good that wake up call has come early than later during the crucial stage.

Though I am an Indian but I wish to see all asian teams from subcontinent doing good and it will be a dream come true if all three ind, pak and lanka will be in semis.
I feel younis should open and Azhar should play instead of Rana, that should solve lots of problems. Also Kamran keeping was also not that bad in this game.

Take some positives and work on the area of improvements. Isnt it ?
We, asian fans, do get so much emoitionally charged whenever we lose even Aussies lost 5 games in a row recently.

okay so pakistan lost AGAIN

end of the world, no not quite yet.

hopes of winning the world cup, theres more hope for peace in the middle east.

rana playing the next match, sure thing, he has probably sponsored a female member of his family to the selection committee as an offering , he will play.

kamran akmal, crap is crap he is a stopper at best, and bats with less consistency then afridi.

i still support pakistan, but wish i had gone and played football last night instead, would have been better for my health.

i get the feeling that ireland are gonna give us a run

but pakistan will do okay

not gonna win the world cup, but will entertain the world in the super eights, whether the entertainment will be in the form of sporting heroes , or clowns thats another question
but they will entertain!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only reasons I can think of selection of Rana Naveed is his personal friendship with Inzi and his beard (same reasons for having Mushtaq as bowling coach). Maybe Sami and Azhar have better chance of selection if they grow beards.

Rana has grown his beared so that when they get back,no one really says anything except for joinin the so called mullah's in the parliament.

1) Afridi in for imran nazir at the opening spot with younis khan,hafeez in the middle order.

2) Sami for rana because he adds another dimnension in the bowling line up.

It's too late to say Salman Butt should have been opening and so on - we have 15 players here and we must use them to the best. First thing Pakistan MUST do is drop Rana Naveed. Why on earth Inzamam continues to select this loser is beyond me? For God's sake doesent he look at performances at all? Rana Naveed was pathetic in England, he was pathetic at the ICC Champions trophy, he put in one flash in the pan decent performance against the Windies in Pakistan, and then was again pathetic in South Africa. In the ODI series in South Africa alone his economy rate was close to 10 runs per over! How on earth can any sane captain continue to play this guy? Maybe Naveed thinks he can grow his beard and join the tableegh to keep his place in the team, but if Inzamam does not drop him from now on - Inzy himself will have hell to pay as soon as he comes back to Pakistan from some angry fans, and he will deserve every bit of it. Secondly, despite all claims in pre-world cup interviews about how he was going to bat higher in the order, Inzamam once again came in at number 5. It's almost a given that if the opponent team has a decent fast bowling attack, Inzamam will hide himself at 5 and let the others face the music. Thats just gutless captaincy. What Pakistan need to do right away is to change their batting and bowling line up - firstly they MUST open with Shoaib Malik and Imran Nazir, followed by Younis Khan, Inzamam, Mohd Yousef, Mohd Hafeez, Azhar Mahmood, Kamran Akmal, Mohd Sami, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar. That way they bat all the way down to number 8 with Mahmood. When Afridi's ban is served he comes in place of Hafeez. Hafeez is a club cricketer who will score runs in practice games, but as soon as he gets to the big stage he chokes. For an opener to continue playing after 45 games and an average of just 19.05 is despicable. And finally, Kaneria showed how ill-equipped he is for ODI. A combination of Afridi and Malik is good enough to cover for Kaneria who is a liability on the field.

Well i agree with many here in the discussion and might not as well, Well to my words "Pakistan still have chances", its just that panic factor in inzi's decision.Even though i will say it was quite a brave decision of inzi to offer W.I to bat 1st.According to me the mistakes done by inzi...
1- Why not to bat 1st and try to put a huge total, as in the history of Pakistani cricket, they might have won more batting 1st.
2-Flaw in batting order, it was a nice batting order in warm up matches as Pakistan add more strength by having younis to open and still hafeez give's strength to middle order.
3- No for rana in bowling,as he is not in a good touch, add sami and i guess afridi will fulfill the place of Kaneria and will even give strenght to batting.

I still have hope on Pakistani team, its just there momentum which they are loosing as Ramiz and many other cricket analyst said Pakistan can rebound. So just pray and enjoy the game.

Few points to note:
1. Openers: Combined average less than Matthew Hayden. That should tell us something. Plus, where's the famed left-right combination? Remember Salman Butt anyone, the guy who keeps scoring runs domestically but is ignored internationally.
2. Bad combination: No left hander in the team. Very easy for opposition to maintain line & length throughout. Hard to imagine there's no deserving left hander to choose from in this huge country of 160 million. Asim Kamal, Salman Butt, Imran Farhat. All of these are better than Imran and Hafeez batting any day.
Too many bowlers/allrounders: Forgot to take enough batsman Inzi.
Favoritism: Persistently failing players still part of the team. Case in point Hafeez, Imran Nazir.
New blood in the team: Bring in new players and test them. Especially those who keep performing in the domestic leagues. Otherwise what's the point of having a domestic league?

Salaam All,

First of all thanks to Kamran for theis wonderful analysis.

I think the whole World Cup campaign was a shame. We should have been building a new team aroung youngsters, instead we revolve aroung shoaib, who was never consistent and inzamam, who was able to deliver in big tournaments since 1992.

Make Shoaib Captain and then build a new younger tema aroung him.

YOu can't discard kamran akmal when you don't have options, every player goes through a lean patch, but that either you bak him in taht time or give him a rest, but now he s there and he must stay there

I disagree on some poeple that kaneira was a wrong selection, he tried him best and got lara out in the depth overs, but then suddenly inzamama took him off insted leaving him here on one end, especially knowing that the young west indians cna't handle spin.

Rana was definitely a wrong choice, he should be given along rest and let him find his form.

The bowling was apart from rana, good. Gul and Rao were fabulous, except for the death overs, but that is where we are missing a good bowling coach in waqar younis.

Batting was disasterous, almost all batsmen played horrible strokes to get out.

The Momentum Inzaman and Yousuf played was shameful, you can't play like if you are there in a test match.

i can't imagine that the west indies were that could, especially knowing what a drubbing they got from the Indians few days back.

i am realy disaapointed, pakistan could have easily won the game, but inzaman just went on the back foot too earyl, you can't just give west indies one maiden over after the other and then hope to get there. i think the bext selection should be:

Imran farhat, imran Nazir, shoaib Mailk, Younis khan, Mohammad Yusuf, Inzaman, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Sami, Rao iftikahr, Umar Gul, Kaneira

and get this highly paid woolmer off the coaching chair, we could do without him...

and get some bowling (waqar younis, wasim akram), batting (saeed anwar, maindad) coaches for the next build up...

Pathetic, aweful, absolute disgrace, gutless!

Choose your words to describe the heartless performance.

Kamran..... Your next title should be ''Only Ireland block the road to super eight stage.''

Ireland and Zimbabwe will be tough to beat for this team. Line them up and spank them I say.

oh well well well.... lots to say about this embarrasing defeat, not the kind of strat Inzi and his mates wanted but lot of aspects of pakistani Team opened very early to think upon. Opening....... I think its better to try Muhammad hafeez and Shoaib malik rather than Hafeez and Imraan. Pakistan Selection Committee must admit that they have made a big blunder by dropping Yasir Hameed n Salman Butt and picking Imraan Nazir. Now someone should tell them not to prove their wrong selection right by giving him anymore chances atleast in this worldcup.
Inzi looked over cautious thinking that only his stay at the wicket can bring victory to Pakistan. I am not against his strategy but he is forced to adopt it when he is playing on No.5 if he comes on No.3 and play his natural game that is to be postive in his shot making then I think rest of the players can also be more productive.
As far as bowling is concerned it was not that bad Kaneria needs to be more aggressive in his approach, he looked a containing bowler and didn`t look like what Inzi and we wanted him to, and didn`t made any impression. Rana........ too expensive and it will be bettter for him to just do the basics right and dont experiment too much. He bowls 4 good balls and then he becomes overconfident and try something fancy (shortpitch) and with his pace and on these wickets it does not work.
The team just needs a postive performance from their captain and rest of the things will get better.
Lets hope for a good performance in fututre.

Poor performance, really embarassing. But even that does not matter that much. I saw a few comments of people really supporting Pakistan and cursing other people for talking negative about the team. And trying to explain how we become hyper on the loss. Its not like that at all. We are ready to accept the Lost. But there is a respectful way of losing. I did not see any sort of enthussiasm or spirit in the players on the field. Inzamam who neeeds to lead by front seems like he is sleeping in the ground. Come on, you are representing your country int the WORLD CUP. Its not a joke.

Dear Kamran,
I totally agree with your comments, I'd also like to add a few more suggestions to the changes to that side that should have happened. I think Imran Nazir needs to be dropped, he has hardly done anything to deserve a place in the side, instead we can have Younis Khan opening like you suggested earlier, he seems to be doing that already :). Also depending on the situation, we can also drop Rana Naveed and instead have Yasir Arafat and Azhar Mehmood batting after Kamran Akmal. This was we'll have a long batting lineup and 2 bowlers who amongst them can get 10 overs in. If the pitch is green and bouncy then may be we can have Sami in instead of one of the all rounders.
We dont need another situation where our 2 best batsmen inzi and yousuf have to score slowly (like this game)in order to not lose wickets because the top order played pathetically and there is no one capable of batting once these two go

It was a poor batting performance from pakistan and i can understand that everyone is dissapointed but there are a few positives from the game such as Rao Iftikhars bowling. I think 1 problem for the team is its openers as they get out cheaply which puts pressure on the whole team. Nazir is poor and I still don't understand why he was picked over Yasir Hameed. Also I think Azhar should come in for Rana and Sami must play instead of Kaneria and then when Afridi comes back he should replace Nazir.

COME ON PAKISTAN

Hi Kamran,
I know Its quite ridiculous performance by our batsmen(although Bowlers Did a great Job), but as far i think their is lack of Leadership in team,
Unfortunately our captain is not perfroming well(As captain).
Regarding Kaneria, i must say that he is an attacking bowler likes to Attack batsmen but with the strategy of Inzi he'll always fail.
Rana should be out of team and azhar will Replace him.
Do insert Kaneria for the match against England, Newzeland and South Africa(as these teams likes to attack).
one last thing. If we are waiting for a miracle then we go waiting waiting...but in the end all we get is the Dust..

I agree with you kamran , infact i think this team has the raw skill to beat Aust too . It was Woolmer's reponsibilty to transform it into a disciplined unit , however he has failed . But history speaks for itself , how often has the coach been able to uplift the Pakistani side ?

Clearly we lack a strong middle order batsman to replace one of the all-rounders .

It is said that an army of a hundred sheep led by a lion is more dangerous than an army of a hundred lions, led by a sheep ! If our lazy bear can transform into a lion somehow, theres no stopping us !

I am an Indian suypporter but another of my favourite teams is Pakistan. So, I was disappointed with the performance of Pakistan team yesterday. India and Pakistan team have one thing in common...... they both are extremely inconsistent. We gotta live with it guys. They will make you happy one day and make you cry the other. So, I have stopped getting emotional with victories and losses. We should just enjoy the game and appreciate good shots, good performances... but I would like to tell my Pakistani friends not to lose hope. The same team can spring back and emerge victors in other matches and beat even stronger opponents like Australia because you can trust them to do the unexpected...... lose to weak opponents and win against strong teams. One thing I would like to see, however, is an India Pakistan match in this world cup...... lets hope for a high voltage India Pakistan enocunter and just enjoy the game without getting too emotional about the outcome.

I one hundred percent with you, Kamran Sahib ! Pakistan team is far from done and InshaAllah, we will show the world why Pakistan has been and will always be a cricketing power. Pakistan Zindabad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry Kamran , I just don't see all this skill and so called latent talent you are talking about . If it was there it would show itself more consistantly . Pakistan lack the bowling and batting firepower to be world beaters .

I would not blame Pakistan for losing this match or having this particular selection. The fact is, the wanted to test some of their players against a proper one day side. Rana has proved he cannot handle bowling at the start and has certainly lost his credibility for being an expert at depth bowling.

Batting: Imran Nazir should open with Mohammed Hafeez. The game plan is simple- Imran would look to make some quick runs while Hafeez knocks the ball around for singles. The major problem is Younis Khan coming in at number 3. As we saw in the first match, as soon as Imran got out the game plan changed to Younis taking over the hitting and conseuqently, when Younis got out it was Hafeez who attempted the slogs. Pakistan need to bring in Shoaib Malik at number 3 and Younis at number 6 which Kamran, Afridi and the tail to handle.

Bowling: Umar gul should open with Mohammad Sami followed by Azhar, Hafeez and Afridi in the middle. Pakistan need more all rounders in the squad. Once they progress to face teams like South Africa or Australia (who have a formidible bowling attack) they need more batsmen towards the end.

All in all i completely agree with you on the fact that its better to lose now then further down the World Cup. Lets not forget that in the match against West Indies, none of the top 3 performed. Although consistent given Pakistan's form- one performance can change the prospect of the game.

To all those blaming selection, strategy etc. i would like to remind them that this is the first game in a group that has only one acknowledgeable one day squad. Leave your comments/suggestions till after we qualify for the Super 8s.

To the guy who suggest kamran should b out.Had there been an extra batsman Pakistan could opt to play younus as keeper,heads of to waseem bari for having such an excellent combination(only 5 batsman).

I has become really depressing to watch Pakistan play. Specially Younis and Inzi. Inzi should have retired last year and Younis suck 90% of the times. Yousuf should be made captain and shoaib his deputy. Why would you play Iftakhar Anjum and Rana when you can play Sami and Azhar. Pakistan line up should be Imran and Afridi open. Then Shoaib come in, Yosuf, Inzi, Younis, Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Azhar, Sami, and Gul. You got 5 Specialist bats, 4 Allround, and 3 Seamers. What else you need. Play with the same line up and you may just end up winning the Cup. With this like Pakistan got never ending batting and 6 bolwers. I Hope Bob or Inzi are reading this......

The only bad thing about Pakistan cricket team is that they suck a lot. They suck too much.

ok guys lets accept it. its our fate. but believe me we should pray for a more dismal performance so that we can accept for some certain changes and some really very necessary. our captain is not wise enough to captain a side in a 3 nation tournament and this is a world cup. he does not know till now that rana should ball at death many of us know but he does not. what he is doing 8 our of rana in first 20. where rana should have been starting from, he is coming to an end. inzi is sticking with hafiz just bcoz he can bowl a bit, believe me this is the only reason of giving him prefference on yasir hameed. when imran nazir played 57 in s. africa i started preparing myself to bear him for a next 2 years though we were obliged for time being. but i am pretty sure it would be better for us and for team if they dont reach in super 8. so that we can expect few changes in cricket structure and cricket team. and what should they do right now. request andrew symonds to get fit over night and on behalf of pakistani nation plz forcefully throw mr. naseem ashraf out of the window, his strong arm can do this for us.

Well Kamran, to be honest, it was pain watching Inzamam bat and Rana bowl, both were pathetic to say the least, the way Inzi and Yusuf were running actually walking between wickets, I have severe doubts about the fitness of Inzi and Yusuf and also their mental state. The way Inzi batted, he should retire himself gracefully after the World Cup otherwise the selectors should do their job. Cricket is suppose to be played by young players which are super fit, thats what they are paid for. Just tell me, if it is not Pakistan, can Inzi play in anyother Top Cricket team of the world??? He doesnot have any leadership capabilities.

In oneday cricket,any team can beat anyone...thats not a big thing..but the issue is consistency. In which pakistan & India, both teams are lacking. my favourite bttng order for pakistan is Imran Nazir at 1, Afridi at 2, number 3 Inzi, Number 4 Yousuf and Younis khan at no. 5. Smalik at at no.6, Kamran at 7, AzharM at 8, Sami at 9, Iftikar at 10, UGul at 11.
3 fast bowlers,
1 Midium pacer
2 slow b/ alrounder (afridi/Malik)
you have six bowlers...i thinks thats enough for one day game.

I dont know what Inzi's strategy, if you look at the team, everything they have, which is required but not in proper order.
I think Inzi should stop thinking and use Yousuf or Younus's mind.
its a team with good players, support ur team guys.
But one thing i agree, Inzi doesnt deserve to be captain, A captian need good communication skills, all you guys are professionals, just think if your boss cant explain you what to do..whats strategy ..what you will understand??
he is a good player, and not necessarily a good player is a good captain.

remove him and get young and exciting guy (younus/ShoiibMalik) ....than see the change..
An organisation is made of good managers, not good employees.

I agree with kamran that sky has not fallen over.Pak can definitely make it super 8.then onwards they have to be more professional.yesterdays match has some positives also.The bowling was very good esp. rao.Had younus khan held sarwan which was fairly easy,things would have been different.Batting is a cause for worry.I would have taken azar for rana & afridi for hafeez or nazir.Team management should think .Never drop afridi from one day squad.He can compensate failure in one area by excelling in another.If he is in the team, they can think of sami in the place of kanaria.kanaria can be there for matches oter than
subcontinent &WI.

Pakistan has a plethora of talented but unfinished players. The system there doesnot refine a player who can cope international teams. The system needs to improve so that players that turn up in national colors are well equped to handle international pressure. The current performance is only expected. The hype is totally unfounded.

This happens in oneday games. One felt Pakistan was a bit nervous. Their openers played bad shots on these wickets one should not play like they do in the sub-continet. They have to see through a couple of overs and then go for their shots. The new ball swings quite a bit. Danish Kaneria did not bowl to his potential and they should have played Afridi in place of Naved who is in a low and a bit unlucky he bowled some beautiful balls but did not find the edges. With Razak not in Afridi has to be played because he gives the team options. he can be played up the order if they get a decent start to up the tempo. He should be used like Dhoni is used for India. Pakistan should not loose heart they can come back. Yousuf, Inzamam and Afridi are the key players.

Inzi please retire. Yousuf for captain and Shoaib V.Captain

Posted by: Archit at March 14, 2007 12:46 AM

Pakistan is the only country where every year quality players pop-up.

Well, whatever you say Kamran and all others ... here's what doesn't change:

1- We are once again in a situation where we need to win all of next matches in this round to get to next stage.

2- Fearing a loss against Zimbabwe and coming home is not too unrealistic. Actually this team can surprise us by even loosing to Ireland, although that might be a little far fetched, but Zimbabwe one is quite a possibility.

3- OK, let's assume, we do win both the next (perhaps easiest games for us during this worldcup) and do go throguh to the SuperEights, then what?

4- Now this raises a very important question. West Indies will have carried 2 pts with them to SuperEights and so would 3 other teams from other groups. So Pakistan will start at the bottom of SuperEights and here will need to win 4 games out of 6 to hope to get in the top 4 to make it to the Semis. 4 out of 6, hmmm doable ... but here are your 6 games against (most likely) ... Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, India and SriLanka.

5- Ah, so let's hope we do win 4 games and go as no. 4 into semis, we'd be facing SA or AUS in semis ... so getting to Final is right now so remote that ... oh, well.

You ask us, if we give up hope ... well up here is the realistic scenarios, now someone tell me if we expect to achieve this with this current team ... mind you we did exactly this in 1992, but perhaps there is a zameen asmaan ka faraq in leadership as well as hunger for win in this team and the one that lifted the cup in Melbourne.

Mr. Kamran, this so this was not just a one game in the begining. I wonder if team manegement or the team sat and did this calculation. Had they known that this Windies game was so important as to if they had won this, they'd only need 3 our of 6 games to get to Semis and if they win a 4th, they would even avoid playing the no. 1 team in the Semis ... then, perhaps they would have thought an extra minute before throwing way their wickets the way they did!

Pak needs proper selection and batting order. I suggest Rana kaneria and nazir out and afridi azhar and sami in. open with hafeez and younis for a stable opening and all the fire power at the end.

Kamran, i dont agree with you based on the arguments you have given, but i do believe that Pakistan can beat anyone in this tournament. But such claims can only be classfied as wishful thinking without concrete steps to rectify the rot that has set into this team. The only thing that was absent from Pakistan's performance was the will to fight, the will to take the game to the opposition, defensive strategies and mindsets will never win you a game. Reckless shots signify a lost cause, and that is what we all witnessed yesterday. The team combination is fine except for rana naved who needs time off because he is not getting any sort of rythm in his bowling and you can have sami step in. I think all of the people putting in their comments have not faced the kind of pressure a world cup match brings with it. The problem with this country is that we give up to easily, despite the problems our team is out there they need the support irrespective of anything.

Yasir Hameed has scored 41, 57, 71, and 41 in his last 4 one-dayers. He averages almost 40 in ODIs.
But who get picked as openers? Mohammad Hafeez (avg 18.86) and Imran Nazir (avg 23.28). What's going on, Kamran? Have the selectors gone completely insane?

I think its too early to lose the hope ... we should look at some positive aspects of the game as our bowler performs really good which was a big threat for Pakistan in the absence of Shoaib and Asif and Kamran Akmal is getting his form back with his gloves ... now we only need our batting to click which is not difficult as we have a very strong batting line ... so lets pray ... Inshallah Pakistan will do well in next games.

Time and time again Imran Khan's words are proving right ...... what the hell Nazir and Hafeez doing in the team why not Butt and Hameed and Mr Inzi what the hell he is doing at number 5 and one more very important thing that i am really happy that Bob Wolmer soon will say good bye

I think SA, NZ, ENG, WI, IND, SL all have the skills to beat Australia at present, going by the state of Australian cricket over the past few months. So if Pakistan does not have the skill to beat Australia ... Mr. Kamran where are you leading us to?

Play Afridi in all the matches; Play either Azhar or Sami depending on the pitch and their performance. Having said that unless the big three (Younis, Yousuf & Inzamam) click Pakistan will keep struggling.

Well I'm Indian supporter but it's very hurting to have pakistan lose without anyfight. I do agree that this performance is not worthy of pakistan but oflate this pakistan team is very inconsistent. I would like to see change in captaincy younis is far better than inzy. Inzy is no doubt great batsmen with still probably 2 years of cricket in him.
after the ban Afridi should be replacing kaneria and i don't see any replacement to asif he is sorely missed here all Azhar, Rana and sami are pathetic bowlers but azhar seems to be better choice
i wish all the things be sorted early or i don't want pakistan going out before super 8 as that could be worst thing to cricket missing Ind/Pak encounter in world cup

no place for Kaneria and rana in the team.. bring back azhar and sami...
it was a shame how the team crumbled today.... cannot chase 240 with the likes of Inzi yousuf and younis in the middle?
Can someone tell Imran nazir that he doesnt need to pull off an afridi? if you are chasing 240 and as an opener you can get a 60 even in hundred balls, you have done your part... sixes look nice but come one.. rise above he flair for once...

The biggest Positive from this match is Rao Iftikhar anjum and biggest weakness is Rana Naveed and Imran Nazir. I STIL HAVE THE FAITH ON MY TEAM AND I BELIEVE THEY WILL GO ALL THE WAY IN THE WORLD CUP.

Well having observed the first match of the tournament it is sad to note the way batters excelled in their innings.IN fact their is nothing wrong with the selection of the team but the irresponsible batting display from the top order which let them selves down very badly.Too many rash shots starting from Nazir,Younis, Hafeez & Kamran ,all of whom are capable of playing a match winning innings.It's time for coach & the captain to re-strategise the batting line up.I beleive Inzi should bat at no. 4 a position in which he's been successful for many years.One more concern is the oneness of the bowling attack though all seamers did their job to repeat the attack is some what similar without any variety,may be it's time to add some pace in to it.No doubt Sami is the only fellow who is capable of clocking at 90 mph.Recommended replacement for Rana Naveed who doesn't look effective any more.With the current form of the players it's manadatory pak should continue with Gul & Rao then add sami boost the pace bowling dept. Since the remaining matches are to be played against the minnows it's a great opportunity for the coach & captain to consider Sami's inclusion which no doubt would boost his confidence in the remainder of the tournament.One more recommendation is to include Afridi once he is eligible to play in place of Danish, this is simply due to Afridi's recent form.

Agreed there is still hope. But as they say "reward excellent failure and punish mediocre successes" this wasn't an excellent failure by any mean. Also this proves Imran's point that in last 4 years we weren't able to develop a opening pair that are brave enough to take on the new ball and the new bowler. Open pair collapses and rest of the team is get under pressure as a result doesn't matter what batting order we go with.

As far as Rana is consider someone told me he saw Rana with Inzi's kids in PC Lahore offering them ice creams and sweets :)

/Maj