Cricket World Cup, a cruel career ending tournament for Pakistan
Pakistan went into the 2003 ICC World Cup in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292, Inzamam ul Haq, Saeed Anwar, Shoaib Akhtar and Yousaf Youhana (now Mohammad Yousaf). It
will be hard to convince anyone who failed to witness the 2003 tournament that this high profile Pakistan team, were thrashed out in the first round.
Pakistan only managed to grab two wins in the first stage of the tournament; both came against non-Test-playing nations http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Namibia-c2964 and Holland. Failure to qualify for the second round of the Cup brought a sorrow end to the careers of 2 of the greatest fast
bowlers to have played international cricket, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Unarguably Pakistan’s best batting opener of all time, Saeed Anwar, also failed to keep his spot in the team, despite performing quite consistently throughout the tournament.
Inzamam ul Haq also lost his place in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Multan-c819. 4 years later,
Inzi was leading Pakistan for the 2007 World Cup in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
Just a few months before the tournament was due to start in West Indies, Pakistan and Australia were deemed by many as the favourites to win the World Cup. During Pakistan’s tour of England, before the big tournament, legends like Ian Botham, Michael Holding
and David Gower openly stated that the Pakistan side seems to be the only team in international cricket which can challenge the might of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746. Soon, it all changed.
Pakistan lost their strike bowlers, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, in the lead up to the World Cup; after the two players were suspended for using banned substances. The form of key batsmen dipped when it really mattered, and Pakistan ended up producing
one of the biggest shocks in cricketing history. Pakistan lost to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751, in their second group stage match, and were humbled out of the tournament as they had lost their opening World Cup match against the hosts.
Pakistan were not allowed to recover from the humiliating defeat, and were met by the news of their coach Bob Woolmer’s death. Pakistan went into their final match of the 2007 World Cup, against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045, with the grief of their beloved coach’s demise. The
match also marked an end to an illustrious ODI career of arguably Pakistan’s greatest batsman, Inzamam ul Haq.
It was heart breaking to see a legend play his final match with only a few hundred supporters in the stands. The opposition was not even nearly fitting for the occasion as well. The combined score of all eleven Zimbabwean players did not add up to the runs
the great Inzi had piled up over the years. When Inzamam retired in 2007, he had scored over 11,000 ODI runs; second only to the little master Sachin Tendulkar.
Now we have the 2011 World Cup coming up in a few months time. Looking at the players who might make the squad, we don’t really see any greats like Waqar, Wasim, Anwar and Inzi; however, this will certainly be the final tournament for a few players. This
will probably be the last time we will see the likes of Shoaib Akhter and Mohammad Yousaf. It remains to be seen if they can end their careers on a high.
Captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750,
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747.
(Disclaimer: This article reflects the opinion of the writer and does not represent Bettor.com’s views)
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