The World Cup is over

Hello Hello Hello...

April 1st 2011, Nation waiting for their Captain

I am back... after a huge gape of World Cup... was some how exciting loved the fact that Pakistan was out of the tournament just 2 days before the tournament ended, would have been more exciting if we had had lost in the final... Lolz. Why am I thinking of loosing?? we might have won the WC if we had reached the final... anyways we lost and not due to the fact that we played badly but that India played better... I had received many messages through out the India Pakistan Semi Final (which I had anticipated) but the one's I enjoyed the most were the one's received after our defeat.... I would like to share some with you...

Messag 1: Ya Allah Kal Pakistan ke liye jo kuchh Parha gaya, aur jitni duain maangi gaeen uska sawab meri dadi ko Pohanche...(Hilarious) I salute the person's approach, not only did he accepted the fact that we are out of the tournament but he had that courage to laugh at our foolishness to pray for a Cricket Match which is only a game of professionalism.

Message 2: Misbah abhi tak pitch per khara hai aur poochh raha hai k doosri innings kub shru hogi?? Lolz... Please some one tell Misbah that it was an ODI and not a Test Match.

PAK VS INDIA: The match we lost, but celebrated the most.

Message 3: (Received after India won the World Cup). "Allah Kare World Cup Toot Jaaye" I enjoyed the 1st one and this one the most... what an innocent curse... since our team and any team else couldn't do anything to stop the Indian march towards the World Cup, the prayer asks the Lord to break the trophy into pieces since he cannot bear the sight of Indians holding the trophy... I really enjoyed the Pakistani spirit to digest our defeat, rather India's success in the tournament. Almost all of us appreciated our teams efforts to reach the Semi Final stage. I didn't anticipated this sensible approach from our nation. I can say this with such confidence because I was there at the Karachi airport on the 1st of April when Afridi had to arrive from India... 4 AM in the morning and such a huge crowd for a captain who has lost a World Cup Semi Final that too against INDIA.... I spent almost 2 hours there at the airport... (No I was not there for Afridi, Afridi's arrival was a co incidence for me, I was there to welcome my would be father-in-law and Afridi's arrival was a bonus for me) there were hundreds of youngsters yelling "BOOM BOOM AFRIDI" wearing green T Shirts with their names on the back. They were there to welcome their captain, they were there to see just a glimpse of him, and they were there just to let him know that they support him, for all his wins and all his DEFEATS... I enjoyed the moment... The realization of the fact that my nation is sensible enough to accept the defeats (and that too the hardest ones) was phenomenal. I really loved those youngsters. This Wold Cup has taught us the lesson which we couldn't have learnt with out the defeat and that was "IN ORDER TO WIN, YOU MUST LEARN TO ACCEPT YOUR DEFEATS "

2010 of Pakistan Cricket Team

2010: What a year that was… Pakistan cricket touched its heights… or may be depths… worst year so far in Pakistan cricket history since 1992 world Cup… We witnessed very poor performance in

all types of games and the cherry of the Cake…. The spot fixing controversy…. Hats off to Mohammad Asif… This was the hat trick after positive dope test and probable drug carrying at Dubai airport…. and if this all was not enough, we had Zulqarnain Haider another Pakistani ruining our image to get political asylum in England… I mean National pride is the last thing they are worried about… and we, the so called in tolerate nation tolerated this all with a smile… Mohammad Asif, Aamir and Salman Butt are still enjoying some support. And If you have forgot this all, Pakistan Cricket was surrounded by some political moves in the dressing room. Shoaib Malik in or out? Younus replaces Yousuf.. Shoaib Akhter to be allowed to bowl in T20s only, Imran Farhat’s mysterious selection, inclusion of another Akmal brother.. I mean what are we targeting??? Is this how we aim to bring home the World Cup. This all could have been put aside if we could

have performed well in the field but our infield performance has been even worse. We played 10 test matches and won only 2 while losing 6 of them, which makes the win loss ratio = 33%. When some of us say that Test is not our format, we are more of a One day and T20 team, let’s see how we performed in the shorter versions of the game. We played 18 ODI and won only 5 losing 13… yes 13... which makes the win loss ratio (28%) even worse than what we had in Test. And finally the T20 internationals, we played total 18 matches and won only 6 of them losing double of the wins i.e. 12 making the win-loss ratio of 33%. So considering the phenomenal record we had in 2010 one can easily determines the pattern we are following… We might be the worst prepared cricket team for upcoming World Cup 2011. But still our nation is waiting for a miracle that is because miracles have happened in the past but those miracles were from the players who played for the nation. Their only goal was the pride of Nation and not the wealth… The team selected for world cup speaks for itself.
World Cup 2011 preliminary squad:

1) Mohammad Hafeez

2) Taufeeq Umar

3) Ahmed Shahzad

4) Nasir Jamshed

5) Younis Khan

6) Mohammad Yousuf

7) Misbah ul Haq

8) Umar Akmal

9) Azhar Ali

10) Naveed Yasin

11) Asad Shafiq

12) Shahid Afridi

13) Abdul Razzaq

14) Yasir Arafat

15) Rana Naveed

16) Salman Ahmed

17) Sarfaraz Ahmed

18) Abdur Rehman

19) Saeed Ajmal

20) Yasir Shah

21) Zulfiqar Babar

22) Shoaib Akhter

23) Umer Gul

24) Wahab Riaz

25) Sohail Tanveer

26) Tanvir Ahmed

27) Junaid Khan

28) Aizaz Cheema

29) Asad Ali

Please send us the final Playing Eleven for the world cup… Although we all know who will be in the playing 11.

Ahtisham Baber
Pakmetro Blog