That’s awesome! Can’t wait! 
Will there be again a certain “POINT-SYSTEM” in place for this tourney:rotfl: 
Thank god all the games will be of a high quality with no part-time sides included. I think the final could well be between Pakistan and Australia which they will probably win.We will have a decent chance of beating India as their bastmen look out of sorts and it's their batting which has won them matches in the past not the bowlers.
in just 3 matches to decide the finalists, it cud be any of the two teams....
but just as a joke, i told my friend, all we need to see is the pak-india match and we will know who will be beaten severely in the final match by the aussies....
but jokes aside, i think a pak-india final cant be easily ruled out....
The most glaring fault with the pakistani team at the moment is its bowling. Both sami and shoaib akhtar seem to be out of sorts. Liken bhai yeh kab tak out of sorts rahein gay....its really frustrating and at times infuriating to see the extras column, their regular loss of line and length, their injuries etc etc. During the days of wasim and waqar we used to talk about swing, reverse swing, the ball seaming around ...theres no such thing over here...idhar to bus yeh log line mein seedhi seedhi gaind daal dain wohi ghaneemat hai. Its really sad to see that bowling which used to be our main strength, at times our only strength, has come down to this. Infact shabbir and razzak have begun to do much better than our leading strike bowlers.
Get this straight, pakistan wont be able to challenge the world champs unless they get their bowling sorted out......they have a decent batting attack, but its way too unpredictable to rely on.
watchout this space for the historical beating of Aussies at the hands of Pakistan and India (no no, not together, in separate matches, you can remove India from the list if you want) :D
I have a feeling Pakistan is going to beat Australia, finally. That will be oh so sweet.
one sentence.
- thok do *
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
I have a feeling Pakistan is going to beat Australia, finally. That will be oh so sweet.
[/QUOTE]
LOL
we CAN beat Australia, it really is possible in my mind it depends almost entrirely on two players.
Shoaib Malik and Razzaq are the key men. These guys bat high up and bowl 10 overs making them the key guys on our team right now. If Malik can keep his batting form (his bowling is almost always consistently good) and if Razzaq can keep improving his bowling, like he did in Lanka (his batting is usually ok) then we have a great chance of beating the Aussies.
Oh there is one more thing, would’nt it be great to see that gritty performer Asim Kamal in place of Yunis Khan. If nothing else, let Asim wicketkeep and replace Moin who looks like he’s almost done at the international level.
Whatever the case, I can’t wait till this series, should be a blast.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
I have a feeling Pakistan is going to beat Australia, finally. That will be oh so sweet.
[/QUOTE]
It could well happen if only because Shane Warne isn't in the squad. If he was I'm pretty certain our batsman wouldn't be able to handle him Inzimam apart.
Well, yeah... a lot of things need to happen for Pakistan (or any other team) to defeat Australia, but its not impossible. I believe this is the time. Though I also have a feeling that we may defeat them in the initial round, but will get beaten in the Finals. Ya Allah Khair.
Pakistan will win it INSHALLAH
and shoaib and sami will fire…its about time!!!
Agarkar back in India squad in place of unfit Zaheer](Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands.)
CALCUTTA (AFP) - Seamer Ajit Agarkar was recalled to the Indian team for the Champions Trophy one-day tournament in England after left-armer Zaheer Khan was declared unfit with a leg injury.
Test wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel was axed to make way for uncapped India ‘A’ gloveman Dinesh Karthik in the 14-man squad for the International Cricket Council’s 12-nation tournament to be played from September 10 to 25.
Zaheer and Patel are the only omissions from the Asia Cup squad which lost to hosts Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday. It was the 10th defeat in 13 one-day finals for Sourav Ganguly’s men in the last four years.
Zaheer, dogged by hamstring injuries over the past year, was laid low again during the Asia Cup and hobbled his way in the last two matches.
“Zaheer needs time to recover and the selectors wanted to rest him ahead of a busy home season that includes Tests against Australia and South Africa,” said cricket board secretary Karunakaran Nair.
Agarkar fought his way back with a string of good performances for Middlesex in English county cricket, including a 5-81 against Gloucestershire at Lord’s on Wednesday.
Patel, 19, was discarded after managing just 132 runs from 14 one-dayers, but remains the number one choice of the selectors for Test matches.
“Parthiv is a very talented cricketer with a lot of promise and should be an automatic choice for Tests,” said chief selector Syed Kirmani, himself a former Test wicket-keeper.
“But he is not suited for one-dayers. We needed someone who will be effective with the bat.”
Karthik, a dashing 19-year-old batsman-keeper, is currently touring Zimbabwe with the India ‘A’ side and scored 96 and 52 in the first two matches there.
Left-handed Rohan Gavaskar, son of legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar, will be added to the squad for two one-day tournaments prior to the Champions Trophy.
India play world champions Australia and Pakistan in a one-off series in the Netherlands from August 21 to 28 and then take on England in three matches between September 1-5.
India’s Champions Trophy squad: Sourav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid (vice-capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Laxmipathy Balaji, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.
Rohan Gavaskar will be added to squad for earlier matches in the Netherlands and England.
indians were overconfident in asia cup they will bounce bak in holland
:0
Each of the 4 matches will be worth watching in this tournament. It is very difficult to predict in one-dayers, but unfortunately one of the finalists may actually be australia. pak and india will have to fight it out for the other spot. Hopefully pakistan will continue the current trend of good performance.
Afridi in instead of Kaneria and Salman Butt in instead of Imran Nazir
Woolmer might accomodate Afridi to give depth in both bowling and batting. Salman Butt deserved another chance though I think Farhat shold be persisted with. And I suspect Imran nazir wont be recalled for a long long time. Sad but true!
Afridi in Holland and ICC Trophy bound squad](BBC SPORT | Cricket | Afridi in ICC Trophy squad)
Afridi’s last limited overs international was in March
Pakistan have recalled all-rounder Shahid Afridi for next month’s ICC Champions Trophy in England.
The 24-year-old played against India in March but was left out of the Pakistan Asia Cup squad last month.
Opener Imran Nazir and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who played in the Asia Cup, both miss out.
Also included in the team is left-handed opener Salman Butt, who has played one Test against Bangladesh in Multan last year.
“We have recalled Afridi because of his experience and for the need of a leg spinner in the team, who can also bat,” chief selector Wasim Bari said.
“We had two choices either to select off-spinning all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez or Afridi, but since we have Shoaib Malik, who also bowls off-spin, we preferred Afridi,” he said.
Pakistan will also play in a three-team warm-up series in the Netherlands later this month along with India and Pakistan
The team:
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Team: Inzamam-ul Haq (captain), Yousuf Youhana (vice captain), Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Yasir Hameed, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan (wicket-keeper), Mohammad Sami, Shoaib Akhtar, Shabbir Ahmed, Rana Naveedul Hassan.
Bob Woolmer (coach), Haroon Rasheed (manager), Murray Stevenson (trainer).
**
Oh Dear, Oh Dear, we are scrapping the barrel again by selecting Afridi. Australia and India will already be celebrating. 
What was the point of dropping Imran Nazir only to bring in another equally incompetent player in Afrdi.
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*Originally posted by ehsan: *
What was the point of dropping Imran Nazir only to bring in another equally incompetent player in Afrdi.
[/QUOTE]
maybe to include another bowler who can bat?