Glimpses of the World Cup

England get going
In their only day and night game in the preliminary round, Pakistan take on England at the picturesque Newlands Cricket Ground under the shadow of Table Mountains on Saturday.

Now, with every match being of crucial importance, winning is imperative for Pakistan. The same goes for England, which having conceded four critical points to Zimbabwe owing to political squabbles, are finding the going exceedingly tough.

While England did rustle up a win against bottom-ranked Namibia on Wednesday, it was a rather unconvincing performance overall, one that the vanquished emerged with more credit than the victors. The Namibian batting, which had only the other day been blasted away by Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, took the fight to England in scoring 217. And at one point, with just one wicket down and nearly 160-odd runs in the bank, had the much-predicted rain come, bringing Duckworth-Lewis formula into play, Namibia may have created the upset of the tournament.

Pakistan prepping for the England game
England's problems of form and politics aside, Pakistan is not taking them lightly.

The greenshirts practiced hard here on Wednesday, in a three and a half hour session. And on Thursday, when no practice was scheduled, the Pakistan management pressed for and got itself an hour of nets under the lights from eight to nine in the night after visiting the famed Robben Island, the site of Nelson Mandela's 28-year incarceration under apartheid, in the afternoon. The excursion was one of the many planned by the Pakistan manager Shaharyar Khan, "with the dual purpose of providing relief from cricket fatigue and to enlarge the mental canvas of the players", said the team's spokesman.

On the evidence of England's display against Namibia, overcoming it should not be a problem for Pakistan, particularly if it fires on all cylinders. But Wasim Akram, a veteran of five World Cups, believes that with complacency and under-estimating England, Pakistan could only come to grief. "England should not be taken lightly... They are a good, well-rounded one-day side; their tail is long and it has the capacity to wag".

While Pakistan's bowling, despite a rather skimpy display in the middle and end overs against Australia in the opening game, has generally been in good nick but the batting has been rather sketchy. It caved in chasing 300-odd against Australia on the same Wanderers ground where a few days later, New Zealand went after a similar total by South Africa and succeeded, albeit with the help from rain (though because of the margin of defeat - nine wickets - the consensus among experts is that the Black Caps would have achieved the target even without the courtesy of Messrs Duckworth-Lewis).

So the batting. quite predictably. remains Pakistan's greatest worry, especially the form of middle order bulwark, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana, and that is not to mention the openers dilemma which somehow remains unresolved. Inzamam made just six runs against Australia, and even less against Namibia for a total of 10 runs in two outings.

On the Newlands batting paradise, however, the Pakistan management would be hoping that its top and middle order runs back into form.

That in any case would be essential if Pakistan is to dominate with a degree of confidence and not just notch up shaky wins.

South Africa hit by captaincy crisis
The captaincy crisis, something with which Pakistan is known to be hit periodically, is now plaguing South Africa. With a slew of setbacks which threaten the favourites' survival and progress beyond the preliminary phase, the very fabric of the team which thrived on backing each other has been rent asunder, and seniors like Allan Donald and Herschelle Gibbs are publicly blaming captain Shaun Pollock for the Proteas plight.

In a very pithy but highly cogent remark, Pollock has struck back by saying that with their statements questioning his captaincy, "Allan and Herschelle didn't mean to harm the team, but they've ended up harming it".

While there are some critics who are keen to pass the buck to Pollock's captaincy, there are many others who have taken up cudgels on his behalf, and accused the likes of Donald, Gibbs and Jonty Rhodes of living in the past by pining for the disgraced Hansie Cronje.

The debate is on, and while rain has once again made South Africa masters of its own destiny by depriving the West Indies of two points against Bangladesh, there are many doubters who believe that it would not be able to somehow slip through to the second round. One of them is their twice previous World Cup coach, Bob Woolmer. "They were built up as the first team to win the World Cup at home, and they're cracking under the pressure of expectation... They're tense; their body language is negative and I doubt that they would sneak through to the Super Sixes".