----- The WC Debacle---

Entertainment Cricket and Other Sports
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** One of the unhappiest day in Pakistan’s cricket. Pakistan out of the worldcup after first round?? Yes, this is a harsh reality we all have to accept and get along with life. Personally, i know i will never stop supporting our team and will always pray for thier future successes. May this darkest day turns out to be the start of a new Era for Pakistan cricket.

What went wrong? This is the first question that pops in our head? Emotional fans must be calling names to our cricketers. Thier Reception is going to be a hostile one. But th best thing our players can do is to face the fans, hold an open press conference, let the nation know what went wrong? Coz we sure do have a right to know.

Batting

The most expected let down in this worldcup. Our batters only produced in one match.
Saeed Anwar is the only man who can hold his head high in this department despite everything agasint him he gave it all.

Inzimam must be passing through the worst phase of his life right now. Unlucky decision and runouts didnt help him either.

Youhana never played to his potential.

Younis Khan seems like the last match winning innings he played was Ages Ago. Taufeeq, Elahi were okay when oppurtunities were given to them.

Rashid Latif is another person despite criticism from all quartes coz of his batting capabilities tried his best in this cup and played some breezy innings.

Afridi, well he was out of form like Inzimam and the only thing he knows to get out of form is to hit out, Never worked.

Shoaib and Wasim played short cameos here and there.

Alongwith Inzi, Razzaq i feel was the worst player. He forgot how to bowl and never produced with his batting when it mattered.

Bowling

The biggest disappointment came from our bowling. Everyone expected it to deliever even when our batters fail and finally when our batters delievered, bowlers werent upto the mark.

Wasim can hold his head high that he gave it his all. Acheived the feat which every paki is proud of. But he alone couldnt do it for Pakistan.

Waqar, again provided expensive wickets. He was the least effective of the trio. Captaincy definetly got the better of him.

Shoaib, well he tred to build the psychological pressure on other teams but couldnt produce except for minnows. Besides achecing the status of only 100 miles man in the cricket hisory, he wasnt accurate like the 99WC and that cost the team.

Razzaq, well he is 1/4th the bowler he was. Never looked liek taking a wicket.

Afridi did his job as a bowler well except for the match agaisnt aussies but he forgot his job wasnt as a bowler but to bring depth in the batting.

Saqlain was clearly past his best but he should have been played in crunch games,

Sami and Azhar were never given oppurtunities and maybe that was a factor to that Pak management didnt trust thier backup bowlers much.

Fielding

Despite showing marked improvement, fielding suffered under pressure agaisnt india.

Strategy

Clearly, think tank of the team gotthe team strategy wrong in most occassions. Teams woeful form didnt help the strategy and they panicked , made rapid changes and never let the team settled.

Captaincy

The major factor bhind our loss agsint Australia. He let aussies off the hook and didnt go for the kill. showd some improvment against England but after the early onslaught by tendulkar against India, he got rattled and neevr recoevered. Team selection, though wasnt his own choice alone, was very questionable especially against india when pakistan shuld have played Sami.

Team Spirit and commitment

Well this is the only bright spot. Every player was behind each other, it was evident agaisnt aussies, England and India. I know you people might have different opinions and press ofcourse will tellus different stories But for once i felt that every player was focused. * (Hey dont bring up that inzi-younis bawl here, its evident it was exaggerated and over blown)* They didnt produce off the field, thats a different matter, Difference of opinions are alwasy there but they looked like they wanted to win at all costs, too bad they have nothing to show in performance column. :frowning:

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Your thoughts???

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Re: ----- The WC Debacle---

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by saby: *
May this darkest day turns out to be the start of a new Era for Pakistan cricket.

[/QUOTE]

insha'Allah, loads of best wishes for Pakistan. :)

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I agree with everything u said up there!!

JO Hona thaa wo to ho gaya!!

now Pakistani team should think abt doing something good and try thier best in the future. i think they will do it… Inshallah. I am with them.. :jhanda:

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Pretty good summing up Saby and as usual a sensible perspective.

My own personal opinion is that we didn't really produce what we were capable of here and for me that's the most disappointing thing. I know we are so much better than some of the performances we have produced so far. I feel if we could just have got through to the Super Sixes we would have clicked and got into form. Saeed was starting to produce, Inzimam looke dangerous again, unfortunately it was too little too late.

I don't want to dump on the players too much because I felt a couple of crucial things went against them. We didn't get to bowl against our major competitors under lights unlike India and England and that meant they had 4 points head start. Our match today got called off and there was another 4 points down the drain.

Having said that though, there can be no doubt that we didn't help ourselves. By now we should have had a settled line up and a good preparation in SA should have established that, but Waqar's bust-ups with players before that put a spanner in the works.

Also, we need to realise that reverse swing is not a weapon anymore in OD matches. As soon as it starts to reverse, batsmen get the ball changed because the ball is 'dirty'. This is one of the reasons why Razzaq was so inneffective and why we didn't kill teams off like we used to in the past.

We need to pick bowlers who hit the seam from now on and can keep a good line and length. Our bowlers main strentgh was nullified and we have to recognise that we need to change our plans for the future.

Anyway, I just want to say that I hope these guys don't get a bad reception when they get home. Players like Wasim, Waqar, Inzimam, saeed, Saqi have done themselves proud over the last few years. Pakistan had a bad tournament but that doesn't take away everything that's gone before. believe me, when they are gone we'll realise just what we had.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Mr Xtreme: *
.

Anyway, I just want to say that I hope these guys don't get a bad reception when they get home. Players like Wasim, Waqar, Inzimam, saeed, Saqi have done themselves proud over the last few years. Pakistan had a bad tournament but that doesn't take away everything that's gone before. believe me, when they are gone we'll realise just what we had.
[/QUOTE]

yeah in the heat of the moment, fans and even PCB will treat them like hell but its the time of summing up things and realize what can be doe to minimze the damage after the seniors are gone.

I agree, we sure were capable of more then that BUT Allah ki hee marzi nahi thi, couple of things went wrong as you mentioned above. Khair milk is spilt, cry ka fayda nahi :(

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Summed up in a good fashion Saby. A telephonic conversation of Gen. Tauqir Zia was broadcasted live! on PTV a while ago and he sounded clearly dejected.

An Inquiry Commision has been setup and all. He specifically mentioned the analyst alongwith others. Dekho kis kis par nazla girta hai!

We have hit the base folks! :(

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**Pakistan team statement after exit from World Cup
Pakistan Cricket Board - 4 March 2003

The Pakistan cricket team issued the following statement after its exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003:
"We are ashamed, disappointed, sad and heart-broken after letting the nation down. We knew that we were carrying the hopes of millions of our fans and have failed to live up to expectations. We tried our level best, we trained extremely hard and did everything within our reach. But things didn’t work the way we would have liked to and we have no excuses to offer.

"The expectations were there because we had world class cricketers. But unfortunately, none of us displayed the talent God has blessed us with.

"We know that tempers are high back home and rightly so because we have not played the cricket we were capable of. The anger of the fans is justified because they are the ones who made us the heroes and have every right to criticize us for our failures.

“In the end, we express our apologies and would like to share the grief with every single follower of the game. The sun will rise again tomorrow and inshallah Pakistan will bounce back and cricket would continue to flourish.”

Samiul Hasan
Media Manager
Pakistan cricket team
**

Link

A very prompt statement and a very balanced one at this very moment :frowning:

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An Inquiry Commision has been setup and all

By who? Some committee made up of army Generals? Give me a break :rolleyes:

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Yup, and they’ll do the inquiry in some Golf course.

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Good PR stuff. I guess they are being pro-active ahead of their flight landing at Lahore International Airport.

Oh, the farewell ceremony seems like a thing of the past :smiley:

Minjanib,
Zinda-dilaan-e-Lahore :hehe:

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Xtreme Bhai: Itni details to pata nahin hain…not that i am couting too much on its findings as it is. Logon ko dikhane ke liay thori sa action to karna parey ga na…wohi kar rahe hain! :nook:

Statement achi hai. 2nd aur 3rd para sach hai…baaqi ka pata nahin!

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Khanzada yaar, we can't just look at the players or coaches and lay the blame on them. Some serious questions have to be asked about the set up in Sports bodies in Pakistan - and that was before the WC 'debacle'.

Army involvement in sports needs to be questioned for a start.

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The only people that deserve to be inquired are the heads of PCB :mad2: Waqar khud tou captain nahi bana tha :mad2:

I would take this “oppurtunity” to thank Wasim Akram for his extraordinary contributions for Pak cricket. Only now people realise how good a captain he was :slight_smile: Just a little to late :smiley: And Wasim if you don’t play ever again well good bye and wish you the best :k:

Too bad our world cup ended so soon :frowning:

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Xtreme: Copy that mate! :k: However as far as involvement of Army in is concerned, well then we need to question it’s involvement in a whole lot of other departments as well…take for e.g. Water and Power, Electricity, Airlines, Railways and what not. :~) (btw, don’t get the notion that i am supporting them…just wanted to tell you that the way things are now..it’s kinda moot point).

Setup of domestic circuit, selection and retention procedure of players and preferential treatment of a few, needs to be questioned kyonke as of now to it doesn’t seem to hold any water.

Players ought to accept their fair share of the onus IMO. Jo team select ho kar gai hai…us main jo deficiencies nazar aaein unki baat kar raha hoon (viz. captaincy, morale, strategy etc.)

PS: The Inquiry Commision is setup by General Sahib himself…just got that! :~)

PS1: Poor Inzi.

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I can’t believe there won’t be a Wasim Akram to watch again :crying: ub mey khail khilari mey phadda kis key liey karoun gi? :crying: Am gonna miss him a lot. The guy meant a lot to me. He is someone who I have been watching for like when i was 10 or may be 9 :crying: How as kids we use to dance and scream whilst watchiing him destroy the opposition is something I can never forget. He was a sheer delight to watch. The expressions he gave when he took a wicket, the way he use to bat to guide Pak to victory after our batting failed, how he use to put his hands on Saqi’s shoulders to calm him down. Most of all the respects he commanded from the players and commentators around the world. He is an icon. He was more than cricketer, someone from whom we expected alot and seldomn did he disappoint. But on rare occassions when he actually did disappoint we were quite unfair to him.

The best part about Wasim was that nothing could de-rail him, he just went on and on and on. It was that ability of his that more than anything else made him the legend he was and still is. Despite everything he faced from accussations to diabetes, he didn’t let anything effect him. He poved his metal where it mattered the most, on the field.

I hope he plays one more tournament, just one more and recieves the good bye he so deserves.

But if he is leaving then Good bye and Thank you for all the little touches of happiness you brought our way in all these years.

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That was a good analysis by saby. Here i want to add a few points.
The pakistani strength lies in its firing power (Wasim, Wakar ,..... ). Its obivious that in the next world cup there will be no wasim or wakar. They are one of the many greats produced by pakistan and sudden retierment of greats creats a void. we all have seen what happned in case of WI....
Pakistan now must try to promote new talent, let them play for country for some time ... allow them to spend some time in the nets and on the field with ppl like wasim and wakar.

Bottom line is that give youngsters more chance and confidence to perform at the highest level.

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fanti: well said :k: kuch saeed bhai ke baare main bhi plz.

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Saeed's hundred brought tears to my eyes...Although a bad time for Pak Cricket, I think there cant be a better way of quitting cricket for him.
Wasim Akram had his share of this world cup, wish he could go with at least a wicket from the last match (although he has hinted several times that he is "still thinking" on the retirement issue)...
I feel so shattered, but of course, the sort of form they carried into the cup we couldn't have expected much from them. Hope they return safe and sound....

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I think the biggest thing that went wrong was Strategy!!!

In all our matches

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I am not sure about others, but Saeed deserves a hero's welcome.
He could do with a good title. Perhaps "Sher-e-Pakistan" will be good, or better still (more often than not) Zakhmee Sher :)