Time for Pakistan to get their act together

LAHORE, 21 March 2000: Sharjah is all set to hold yet another cricket extravaganza from March 22 when India face South Africa in the inaugural match of the double league tournament also involving Pakistan.

The venue of most One-day Internationals, the desert-city has certainly been the happy hunting ground for Pakistan and Moin's men must avail this opportunity to the maximum. A victory here will go a long way in turning around the fortunes of the team. But considering the inexperienced batting line-up in their possession, Pakistan will have to play really well to make it to the final. A fact which was highlighted by Moin Khan the Pakistan skipper, speaking on the eve of team's departure for Sharjah: Don't expect miracles from us, however, we'll try and play the toughest cricket possible.

Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana are the only experienced middle-order batsmen in the squad of 15. While Inzamam has found his old magic touch, Yousuf Youhana is still struggling to do justice to his enormous talent. And with Saeed Anwar also not available for the tournament, Pakistan should have included Ijaz Ahmed in their line-up. Although he failed to deliver the goods in the two finals in Australia and in the only Test he played against Sri Lanka, Ijaz has been Pakistan's main batsman during the one-day and Test matches Down-Under. He could have been used as an opener where he performed creditably whenever given a chance to open. Experienced players like Ijaz certainly deserve better treatment and should only be replaced when better back-up stuff is available.

But weakness in batting notwithstanding, Pakistan still enjoy the reputation of one of the strongest bowling attacks around and if their fielders can back them up, there is every possibility of the team winning the ultimate honour. The other positive thing for Pakistan will be the presence of Javed Miandad as coach who is capable of bringing out the best from a player. Shahid Afridi's success at Test level is ample proof of that.

On the other hand, South Africa and India are better prepared for the tournament after playing a hard-fought one-day series in India. Both the teams crossed 300 runs mark four times in the series, a fact which, also reflects their weakness in bowling department. While the South African's can make up the absence of Donald with their superlative fielding, Indians will find it hard to overcome their below-par bowling. And with neutral umpires standing in all the matches, their task will be even harder to repeat the home performance where they lost the Test series but hit back with a 3-2 victory in the one-dayers.

South Africa, without even a shadow of doubt, are the best team taking part in the tournament. Pakistanis can match them in batting and bowling but in fielding Cronje's men are miles ahead of India and Pakistan, an edge which could probably win them the title.

Pakistan's 15 for the tournament is: Moin Khan (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Shahid Afridi, Naved Ashraf, Wajahatullah Wasti, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Akram, Arshad Khan and Shoaib Malik.