Islamabad, Feb 3(ANI): Mudassar Nazar, former director of game development for the Pakistan Cricket Board, has expressed his utter disbelief at the mediocre planning by the PCB and its selectors for the World Cup 2011, and said Pakistan are unlikely to win the tournament, as the selected squad is "simply not strong enough."
"It usually takes a team 3-4 years to prepare for the upcoming world cup - the preparation starts when one World Cup ends! This World Cup is around the corner; all of the teams are in tip-top condition and have everything sorted out. All the other teams are in top nick while Pakistan doesn't even have a captain. That is ridiculous!" PakPassion.net quoted Mudassar, as saying.
"The captain has to be in place for strategies to be worked out and plans to be made - on top of that we have 3 of our top players missing. One wonders as to how many knocks Pakistan can take," he added.
When asked to put himself in the shoes of the PCB chief and describe who he would select as the captain for the World Cup, Mudassar had no second thoughts in naming Afridi.
"I would have gone with Shahid Afridi. He has been the captain for the past year or so. Now, the tournament is around the corner for which he has been preparing for a while and all of a sudden they're not sure whose going to be the captain. It's not like Pakistan has twenty match-winners on the team or have Mike Brearley waiting to be captain!" he said
"I simply don't know what Shahid Afridi has done to receive such treatment from the board? Is there something we don't know? If there is anything, then his team must be told or at least his coach should know - which he doesn't, if the current statements by Waqar are any indicators," he added.
Speaking about the final 15-member squad selected for the World Cup, from which some big names like Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Shoaib Malik are missing, Mudassar did not sound too optimistic about the selections.
"The squad is not strong at all. Pakistan are unlikely to win the World Cup with this squad; they are simply not strong enough. They are playing one of the worst sides in ODI cricket, New Zealand and they aren't exactly beating them 6-0, are they?" he said.
"The only thing is the world cup is in the subcontinent which allows Pakistani batting a better chance at not getting exposed. Once they put up the total, they still have some semi decent bowlers to help then defend it," he added.
Pakistan are in Group A alongside Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya, the latter being Pakistan's first opponents on 23rd February, 2011. (ANI)
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