Pakistan to propose change in World Cup final format (29 June 1999)

29 June 1999

Pakistan to propose change in World Cup final format

The Dawn

Islamabad, June 28: Pakistan plans to propose to the International Cricket Council to determine the World Cup winner team through a best of three round, rather than a single contest of finale in future. This was disclosed by Dr Zafar Altaf, the manager of Pakistan Cricket team. In his first interview since his return from England, he spoke to Dawn here on Monday on Pakistan's defeat at Lords on June 20. He spoke on a number of pressing topics relating to World Cup 1999. He said all the formalities required for putting forth the proposal have been finalized and chairman PCCB, Khalid Mahmood, will table it in the forthcoming meeting of the ICC.

Elaborating the proposal, Dr Zafar said since one day cricket has become so fast that the hardest working teams' performance could not be judged in a single match, hence the proposal. Referring to the South Africa team, he said their exit from the last two slots was an ample evidence to the present method's poverty in judging the best.

He said the best team of the world could have a bad day as was the case with South Africa and Pakistan.

Dilating on the final contest at Lords, Dr Altaf said there could be no justification for the poor performance of the Pakistani team. " At Lords the team's performance disappointed not only the cricket fans throughout the world, but the players themselves", he said.

He added people would not believe that players are still in a state of shock, unable to understand what went wrong on June 20. "Who would be more disappointed than the players themselves to see the hard labour of several months gone waste in the span of just two hours?" he reflected.

He thought all the players needed support and encouragement from their countrymen and national media in particular. He, however, regretted that the way the players are being humiliated in front of the whole world by sections of public and media. " They have been abused, their houses were pelted with stones and threats were issued to members oftheir families...not even their elders were spared", he lamented. Pointing out failures in the match against Australians, he admitted that our players miserably failed to read Shane Warne in his peak form despite the fact that Pakistani batsmen are considered to be best against spin.

To a question regarding lack of planning for the final match, he said it would be absurd to think of such a miss. All teams, Pakistan no exception, hold preparatory meetings before every match, to discuss the strength and weaknesses of their own and the rival teams. The game plan against Australia simply did not click, he added. Causing serious and at times, decisive loss to the Pakistani team, namely the run-out phenomenon, was reflective of poor coaching, he thought. Our players simply did not follow the basic rule that it is the left hand to carry your bat when a call for run is there. But each of our players was holding his bat in his right hand, inflicting upon himself the disability of losing the sight of the fielder returning the ball.

He said picking of the players for the World Cup matches also became a serious problem as many an intruders from outside the managing apparatus attempted at getting this or that player out or in. The team management and the captain were under constant pressure in this respect, too.

Some powerful members of the Pakistani community in England made repeated attempts to interfere on this count, he added.

Match fixing: "Non sense", he said. There is a population with sick and defeated mentality, manufacturing such allegations all the time, he added. He said extremist Pakistani fans and emotional mediamen should be held responsible for demoralising all the players at a time when every cricket playing nation was supporting their teams to win the cup.

While, he regretted here in Pakistan they were abusing their own players and pelting stones at their houses and demanding the higher authorities to punish them. " What kind of a nation we have become", he wondered!.

FUTURE OF THE TEAM: Dr Zafar said presently Pakistani team is the best team of the world but it has one potential weaknessfitness problem.

He said one should have noticed that main players of both the Australian and South African did not suffer fitness/ injury problem throughout the tournament despite tough games. While, he added Pakistanis players suffered injuries. As a result, when we approached semi-final round, almost every player was facing some fitness problem. He said our players needed good fitness training to overcome this problem once for all.

Secondly, he said our players are playing cricket on daily wages basis. Pakistan Cricket Board should change this adhoc policy and hire best 25 cricketers of the country on lucrative contracts according to their abilities and experiences so that the element of uncertainty could be removed from the players' mind.

Dr Zafar Altaf said cricket fans need to know that Pakistani cricket is more indigenous. By that, he added, he meant that it was more about the pleasure of hitting the ball with the bat and knocking the stumps out than being coached in an appropriate and proper way.

Source :: The Dawn (www.dawn.com)