Can Pakistan defeat India and Sri lanka to win the Cricket Asia Cup
If we were to draw parallels to football for every cricket event then Asia Cup would be the equivalent of Euro Cup. It is played among the teams of a continent and it forms a very strong field. But contrary to football neither is it a very sought after tournament nor is it held once in four years. Asia Cup does not have the build up of Euro and it has not been branded in the same way.
The concept of Asia Cup was born in 1984 and since then this tournament has seen the light of the day 9 times. The 2010 Asia Cup is being held in Sri Lanka from the 15th to 24th of June. The tournament will see the participation of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka goes into the tournament as two time defending champions. Their recent run of form also makes them the tournament favourites. Both India and Sri Lanka have won the tournament on four occasions each making them the most successful teams.
Pakistan on the other hand have managed to win the Asia Cup only once before that too in 1986.
Asia Cup 2010 comes at a very important juncture for Pakistan cricket. Early this year, after a disastrous tour of Australia seven players from that team were banned and sanctioned for different periods of time.
While Mohammad Yusuf and Younus Khan were banned for life, Rana Naved-ul Hasan and Shoaib Malik received one year bans. Heavy fines were levied on Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal and Kamran Akmal. The Pakistan Cricket Board had taken this decision because of the misconduct of these players. The move could have set precedence and deterred cricketers from misbehaving in the future but the overturning of Shoaib Malik’s ban showed what a farce the entire thing was. Following this entire fiasco PCB chairman Ijaz Butt resigned.
Pakistan’s recent run of form hasn’t been that great either. They had a disastrous tour of Australia not being able to win even a single ODI and losing the 5 match series 5-0. Thereafter they also lost a series to New Zealand 2-1. Moreover, they failed to defend their T20 World title recently and lost in the semi-finals.
The current crop of Pakistan players lack the experience and expertise of playing in big tournaments. The ban on the players hasn’t done any good for Pakistan cricket either. In fact because of this ban, Mohammad Yusuf announced his retirement from international cricket and is not considering a comeback in any case. He is one player that Pakistan really needs right now.
Not left with any choice, temperamental Shahid Afridi was made the captain of the Pakistan team. More than anything else Pakistan needs Afridi’s charisma with the bat and ball. Among others Abdul Razzaq, Salman Butt and Dinesh Kaneria also need to lead the way.
Shoaib Akhtar has made a comeback to the Pakistan squad for the Asia Cup while Umar Gul has been ruled out due to injury.
The players who have made the cut are: Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Akmal, Shahzaib Hasan (wk), Asad Shafiq (wk), Umar Amin, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi (c), Abdul Razzaq and Shoaib Malik.
A good show in the Asia Cup will go a long way to improving the morale of the team which has had a long string of bad results. Also it could be a nice stepping stone to get the team ready for the 2011 World Cup, which now just stands seven months away.
Pakistan starts their Asia Cup campaign against Sri Lanka on the inaugural day of the tournament itself.
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