Pakistan-India final ideal for World Cup 2011: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482
Pakistan’s cricket captain, Shahid Afridi, has expressed desire to lead his team against India in the final of this year’s cricket World Cup set to begin from the 19th of February, which is being jointly hosted by India, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 and Bangladesh.
During a press conference, the flamboyant Afridi said, “There is a possibility that Pakistan and India play the final of the World Cup and if that happens, it would be ideal for the World Cup, one-day format and for the game of cricket. Both India and Pakistan
have to play above their potential to reach the final, but it would be ideal for the billions of people around the world.”
Pakistan and India have met four times in the World Cup and every time India has come out as the better side.
In 1996, defending champions Pakistan were knocked out of the World Cup by India in a highly aggressive quarter-final in Bangalore. After the defeat at the hands of the arch-rivals, many Pakistani players had been accused of match-fixing and losing to India
on purpose. However, no evidence was found of foul play.
Relations between the two nations hit rock bottom in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attacks. India cut all bilateral ties with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and refused to play any bilateral cricket series with the neighbour.
Nevertheless, the teams faced each other in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Champions Trophy in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in 2009. Pakistan beat India in the encounter.
Afridi believes that beating India on their home soil in the final of an event as big as the World Cup will be a treat for everyone to see. “We would love to beat India in India and in a World Cup match because we have never done this before and this could
be a great motivation,” Afridi said.
Asked if his team felt threatened by Hindu extremists in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, Afridi rebuffed the notion and claimed that the people of both the countries loved cricket and he did not see any practical threat from Hindu fundamentalists.
In the past, Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena had threatened Pakistan’s cricket team and warned the Indian government not to host Pakistan. However, various Indian governments have played down the threats and made sure that the extremist group did not disturb
any event involving the Pakistan cricket team.
Afridi reiterated that cricket had served as a catalyst in bringing the two nations closer to each other in the past and there was no reason why it couldn’t do the same this time when the relations between the two countries are again at their lowest.
Pakistan and India are placed in separate groups, which means they will not be playing against each other during the group stages and will definitely want to avoid each other in the quarterfinals so that both of them can reach the finals and give cricketing
fans a final of a lifetime.
Pakistan will play their first match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747.
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