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.
Last one;
انضی چچا بÛ
Another one;
پاکستان ٹیم سے ٹیسٹ کیپ بھی واپس Ù„Û’ لینی چاÛ
Here is a good one from BBC Urdu;
صرÙ
Did Inzi explain why Allah did not want the team to win, despite him and et all bowing down at least 5 times a day and have the mile long beards? Then what would Allah respond to?
Does Allah like Catholics more than Tablighis these days?
Pakistan team’s religion is becoming such a big issue i feel more for Paksitanis
It was not an issue. It was never an issee It has been made an issue by those who have issues with the religion.
he team was not motivated, they were just not ready for cricket
When you see crisis like dope tests which removes player like Shoaib and Inzy, Forcing players to speak urdu which I personally consider an offensive attempt by PJ Mir,fights between Captain and Younis,Shoaib and Coach etc etc. If you still think that a person regardless of his profession could give 100% result then I must disagree with you. No team can perform if it has become victim of scandals and crisis. We lost in WC99 due to coach factor, we lost in 96 because team was against Miandad, we lost in 2003 WorldCup. There was no Inzimam as captain at that time but then team like BD which was not talented like current IRISH team.
If you notice that Pakistan didn’t win any tournament after “installment” of Naseem Ashraf. Why is like that? Obviously he was more busy in non-cricketing stuff like removing religion or religious people out from cricket because this is the reason he was sent by Musharraf. After all same team was giving good performances in Shehryar era.
What I think that there should be no cricket or any sports in Pakistan. We start expecting a lot from our players and when they suffer, we curse them as if they are sons of iblees and we were brought up by saints of modern times. I know we would be cursing in similar manner in WC2011. At that time we would have some other excuse to vomit out our frustration.