Adil Najam
Pakistan plays its second group match in the 2007 World Cup Cricket against Ireland today.
Having already lost the first match to hosts West Indies, if the troubled Pakistani team also loses this game, it would have effectively eliminated itself from the tournament even before the ‘Super 8’ begin. On the other hand, if Ireland wins, it will be a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day windfall for the Irish.
Even though Ireland had pulled in a remarkable effort by tieing against Zimbabwe, the odds say that Pakistan will not lose today (and if they do, would there be any hope at all left for Pakistan cricket?). But around 20 per cent of our readers seem to think that Pakistan will fail to make it to the Super 8 – if not by losing today’s game, then by losing the last Group game against Zimbabwe. This according to the results of our ATP Poll on Pakistan’s prospects for the Cricket World Cup 2007.
(Click above for larger image)
The overall prognosis from the Poll seems to be rather bleak.
- A total of 398 votes were cast in the Poll.
- Some 20 per cent (79 votes) believe that Pakistan will not even make it past the group stage into the ‘Super 8.’
- This means that 80 per cent feel that the team will get into the Super 8. However, just about half (47 per cent; 188 votes) believe that Pakistan will not get beyond the Super 8 stage.
- A total of 34 per cent (131 votes) believes that Pakistan will, in fact, get to the Semi-Finals. But 20 per cent (78 votes) are of the view that the team will get no further than the Semi-Finals.
- 53 people (14 per cent) are of the view that the green caps will get to the Finals; and of these 43 (11 per cent of total) feel that we will win.
Personally, in this case I would hope that the majority is wrong and the 43 people who think that Pakistan will actually win the World Cup turn out to be correct. I hope so, but, frankly, I am not holding my breath.
I am not that much into cricket but, I think, Inzimam is putting Allah in a very embarrassing corner by holding Him responsible for the team’s defeat. I would have thought Allah had much bigger responsibilities than overseeing a cricket match between Pakistan and Ireland.
“Vaissay look at the bright side. Now that Pakistan is out of the world cup, ub hamara time kum zaya ho gaa. :)”
Yaar…this is one of the few times I disagree with Aqil. Being a grad student, this is one of the few things that gets me excited….man, I was looking forward to kicking back and relaxing and wathing the super-8 games…I even got my lab-work out of the way.
It is a very depressing event pakistan has never done so badly in world cup before but i guess i do’nt mind an honest defeat so much. It would have been much more excruciating had it been a planned staged non-performance by the team as had been done many a times before.
We can move on to making a strong worldclass team now that the jawari khiladi are not a part of it.
I pray for the birth of another imran khan to restore self esteem of our team. Its just a game which is lost as often as won but what we need is reinstatement of faith in our team.
Vaissay look at the bright side. Now that Pakistan is out of the world cup, ub hamara time kum zaya ho gaa. :)
Well, I wasn’t trying to gang up on Inzi for his faith. I even felt that Dr. Nasim Ashraf probably went out of line when he made a public comment about religion.
My only complaint is that Inzamam should not say “first of All, thanks to Allah” when he has just lost a match. It sounds very funny and non-Muslims are likely to take this in a negative sense. If one is trying to propagate one’s religion, the first and foremost thing is not to say things that will sound very silly to others.