Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
GM Media Agha Akbar and Team Manager Mr Naveed Akram Cheema
Pakistan never beat India in Cricket World Cup but there’s always a first time for everything
(Exclusive
Article by Naveed Akram Cheema)
When I took charge of the
team for this second stint of mine as Team Pakistan’s manager, our first
assignment immediately before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was the
preparatory tour of New Zealand. We had to play four matches there, the last
two being one-day internationals, while the first brace was what they call
warm-up games.
This tour was deemed important because out of the six pool
B matches, Pakistan is to feature in exactly half across the Tasman Sea, flying
over time and again from Australia in an itinerary that is, suffice to say,
would be tough not just on us but on any international team.
Anyway to
get to the point, the tour turned out to be a really disappointing one, with
the Green Shirts losing all their games. Though a couple of losses can be
ascribed to experimentation and ill luck, but it gave our critics an
opportunity to go after us and the team was castigated for its composition as
well as its performance. There were dire predictions galore, with pundits
foreseeing nothing but doom for us in the World Cup.
So, when we landed in
Sydney for the next two warm-up matches, I must concede, we were not in that
great a shape.
I leave most of the cricketing affairs to the set of
coaching staff to sort out (and they are indeed a most competent lot), only
confining myself to the administrative and disciplinary affairs, but ensuring
that the ship is always tightly run.
And this impacts not just off-field
balance and good conduct, as a corollary it does have a bearing on the on-field
performances as well.
The palpable feeling across the coaching panel as
we landed in Australia was that to turn things around we needed to win both
games.
Head coach Waqar Younis meanwhile was found telling each one
individually and also collectively in team meetings time and again that his
charges had the capacity to bounce back quickly. This faith of his in the
team’s ability and potential and captain Misbah-ul-Haq’s exemplary leadership
and honesty of purpose saw Pakistan clinching both games against Bangladesh and
England.
These may only have been warm-up games but their results were not
being seen as such. And beating England gave us a huge boost ahead of our big
game against India.
The Men in Green are well prepared now for the
match. Most of them have hit good form. And everyone is quietly confident that
Sunday afternoon when the fixture commences they would be able give off their
best in front of a capacity crowd.
Everyone keeps reminding me that Pakistan has never beaten India
since their first World Cup game ever in 1992. Well, what’s that age-old
saying, there’s always a first time for everything.
(Naveed Akram Cheema, until recently the chief secretary of
the Punjab, is presently Manager, Team Pakistan)
****************************************************************************
2 Special Photos of Pakistan Cricket Team’s practice at Adelaide on Fri, 13 Feb 2015
Pak Captain Misbah ul Haq Niazi and Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Even extra tickets printed but the Adelaide Oval is sell-out for Sunday's Pak India Match
