Waqar still remains optimistic

PAARL-The heavy defeat against England at Newlands has left the Pakistan team shell-shocked. Still licking its wounds, the outfit travelled from the lovely cosmopolitan Cape Town to this laidback sleepy town Sunday afternoon for its match against Holland on Tuesday amid deafening silence.

With only four points from three games, their World Cup campaign is in a shambles. But Waqar Younis believes - as he said in his post-match press conference with some conviction in his voice that he somehow mustered despite the fact that it seemed quite palpable he might start crying any moment - that Pakistan still has a chance. "We just have to start winning. In 1992, we had bounced back from nowhere. We can do it again".

One would dearly love to share his optimism, but it definitely is now rather uphill. Quite possible, but a whole lot more difficult. Again as Waqar himself conceded, his side has to somehow draw deep and find the resolve and commitment to get it right.

One fellow scribe couldn't resist the urge to be blunt with him. "In 1992, Imran Khan's inspirational leadership made the difference. Do you think you have the capacity to do the same?", was the question. To that, visibly annoyed, Waqar said that he was not there in 1992, and "I don't know how he inspired the team, but I think I can".

Again, brave words. But, as they say, talk is cheap.

On whether he thought any changes were required in the playing eleven, he said that the squad that he had got represented the best that Pakistan could have fielded. True, and what he failed to mention was that it probably had the best technical support staff at its disposal and yet it was finding it difficult to click.

Technically speaking, Pakistan needs to win all its remaining games and then hope that, with Australia safely having ensconced itself at the top of the pool and not threatened much in the remainder of the event, it would outpoint England, India and Zimbabwe to grab one of the two remaining slots and progress to the next round. For the moment, it is languishing at fifth on the points table, behind the above four.

But given the vagaries of the weather, which has already cost the West Indies dear, and further desertion of luck on the flip of the coin, Pakistan may find itself in an irretrievable situation.

But the greatest worry of Pakistan is neither the weather, nor the toss; not even the opposition. It is the woeful lack of form of its key batsmen. None of the top four or five has really fired in any of their three games. If one looks back at Pakistan's brightest moments in the 1992 World Cup, they would crystallize in Imran's tremendous leadership, Inzamam's great strokemaking in the semi-final and final and Wasim Akram's tremendous form. They've all been eulogised no end in the last 11 years. But the fact is, that if memory serves one right, the top four in Pakistan's batting order - Rameez Raja, Aamer Sohail, Imran Khan and Javed Miandad, in that sequence - all scored more than 350 runs in that event.

Pakistan desperately craves for that stability at the top of the order, with none raising its hand.

The most disappointing has been the performance of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana, the two of whom one thought would play a role much similar to Miandad's in 1992.

True, the form may have deserted them at the wrong time; James Anderson may have moved the ball a shade more than they expected, but it was far from devilish. Had Inzamam not taken it as casually or had Youhana not opted to face his first delivery with a slanted bat, they may still have survived and prospered.

As for form, we've seen two of the contemporary greats in Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, and an outstanding strokemaker in Herschelle Gibbs, all groping in the beginning. What separates them from Pakistan's two non-delivering maestros is that they fought it out in the middle, putting a heavy price on their wicket for the sake of their team's cause. They had the knowhow, and they have prospered famously, and their teams are better off because of their perseverance and sense of responsibility.

One wonders if our leading batsmen would rise to the occasion in what remains of this World Cup. This already seems to be too late.