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World cup 2011 is just a few months away, all the major teams except Pakistan have already completed their preperations and have finalized their pool of players for the WC 2011.  During this remaining time before the world cup these teams are trying different game plans and different combinations.

Whereas, Pakistan has never been so disintegrated, the loss of Aamer, Asif and Butt is huge and there is no chance that they will be available for selection for the WC. Under the circumstances any other board foreseeing the problem would have immediately started the rebuilding process, but PCB just chose to recall all the old discarded players back.

If we look at the team playing against South Africa just add Inzamam, Shoaib Malik, Imran Nazir and Rao Iftikhar to it and it will almost become the same team which lost to Ireland in 2007 WC. 

The above scenario raises the question that since the last WC how many players of international calibre PCB has developed? Two years ago they told us that they have started preparing for the world cup where is the result?

The fact is that the academy has given us just Aamer and Umar Akmal the rest is just trash. Aamer has self destructed and Umar Akmal has failed to live upto his reputation. The current team is a lot weaker than the team which went to the carribean under Inzi in 2007.

Whatever was gained during the last five years has been lost due to the corrupt culture internal politics and inconsistent and unfair selection policies.

We developed Salman Butt and kamran Akmal as openers in the shorter format both are out  of the team due to corruption. The middle order used to be the backbone of Pakistan’s batting under Nasim Ashraf’s administration but due to dirty politics all four middle order batsmen have been in and out of the team during the last year and have played international cricket occassionally, Younis and Misbah are making a come back after almost a year, Malik is still out of the team due to poor form, Yousaf during the last two years have also been in and out of the team first due to ICL exodus and later because of his retirement.

Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Asad Shafiq, and Azhar Ali were added to the national team during last two years but except Umar Akmal neither one has the talent to be successful at international level, Shafiq is promising but has very little experience.

The selection has been very unfair and inconsistent during the last two years, we don’t have a proper opening pair, Imran Farhat, Khalid Lateef, Khurram Manzoor, Shahzaib Hassan and Hafeez have failed consistently.  Taufeeq Umar, Imran Nazir, Nasir Jamshed, and Ahmad Shahzad are the back up openers. All four of them consistently performed better than Yasir hameed and Imran Farhat in domestic tournaments but they couldn’t impress the selectors.

Kamran Akmal will probably make a comeback but who will be his partner, the selectors had the current series to try out Nazir and Ahmad Shahzad but they preferred Farhat and Hafeez I think it was an opportunity lost to repair some damage.

Younis, Umar Akmal, Misbah, Yousaf, Afridi and Razzaq will form the middle order.

There is no replacement player for Afridi and Razzaq we are stuck with them, PCB hasn’t made any effort in developing new all rounders over the years those who had the potential have been completely ignored.

If we look at England, Australia, South Africa and India they have developed new players for every position during the last two years and have also given them enough exposure at international level to help mature them.

PCB also tried many young faces but not even a single player was ready for International cricket they all were talented but with the exception of Fawad Alam and Omar Akmal not even a single player got a longer run, one failure and the player was discarded.

Our team looks like a veterans eleven,  the aging players are making a comeback so they need match practice it won’t be possible for Pakistan team to expose it’s young players to the test that would be another lost opportunity. South Africa very smartly rested the older players in the T20′s and played their upcoming players, PCB should have done the same.

The biggest blow to Pakistan team’s chance in WC was the loss of Aamer and Asif the pair alongwith Shoaib and Gul would have made the best and most versatile pace attack in the world but now our only hope is Akhtar.

If Pakistan has to fancy any chances of reaching the final four in the world cup they will have to follow an aggressive approach and will have to take some bold steps to carve a winning combination out of its depleted resources.

PCB will have to let go of policies of favoritism and nepotism.

They will have to pick Nazir and Ahmad Shahzad as openers, Farhat should get dropped. We can’t allow Hafeez to bat at #3 or #1 he doesn’t last more than 4 overs. We also can’t afford two all rounders who are only good at one skill, it would be better to play specialist players instead.

Afridi leadership should be closely monitored during this series.

The selectors should monitor the performance of players not on the basis of statistics but only on the basis of their effectiveness on the field and the success they achieved in terms of their role.