The Pakistan National Cricket Team is an international cricket team representing the country of Pakistan, and is administrated by the Pakistan Cricket Board aka PCB. Pakistan are the 1992 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup champions, ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup champions of 2004 and 2006, and are also the winners of the2009 ICC World Twenty20. As Pakistan once again takes center stage Wednesday, February 23rd at the 2011 World Cup, Pakistani fans wait with bated breath.
Since their successful World Cup campaign in 1992, Pakistan cricket has been through some challenging times. Although Kenya will be somewhat hurting from their loss in the opening match against New Zealand, Pakistan has had some confusion over team and captaincy selections and have lost more than they have won in the last 12 months. Pakistan did, however, pull out a win over Bangladesh in warm-ups – but then lost to England. Fans remain hopeful though, and remind critics that Pakistan have come up with some of their best performances when it was least expected.
For the first time since 1999, Pakistan is bringing genuinely fresh personnel – eager players ready to make a name for themselves. Coach Waqar Younis praises his team and is enthusiastic about their talent. “We have such players like Ahmed Shehzad, who has played two very good knocks, and I hope that Umar Akmal, another youngster, can come good here. Younis [Khan] is in good form. We have Wahab Riaz, who we hope will do well.” Younis adds, “We have got a good blend, good spinners, fairly good fast bowlers. All that matters is that we click at the right time.”
Younis has mentioned his concern about the team’s inability to finish off close games, or longer contests such as bilateral series; but he remains confident it’s an area they can improve. Of their 10 losses since Younis has taken over, 3 have been by 24 runs or less. Younis is understandably wary about the match-up with Kenya, but he states that his team will not take anything lightly, and will go out to win every match.
Pakistan’s upcoming game on Wednesday will be their first international match since Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were banned (10, 7, and 5 years respectively by ICC) from the game for spot-fixing. Pakistanis are trying valiantly to move on, but reminders constantly hang in the air. Coach Younis was reported saying, “We all know that we’ve been through tough times but that doesn’t mean we don’t have talent. We are good enough to beat any team on our given day. I don’t think anybody is even thinking about match-fixing or spot-fixing. We all are geared up because it’s a great tournament.” Younis encourages his team to stay away from the newspaper and TV, and just stay focused on the task at hand.
Shahid Afridi, World Cup captain, agrees with Younis and says that his teammates are united in their goal to keep their eye on the cricket. “We’ve gone through a very tough situation.” Afridi said. “As a captain I’m very happy because we were trying to rebuild the team and boost its morale. The team has gelled. We keep these (controversial) issues out of the team and we are focused on the cricket … We played well in New Zealand and the boys are united and they feel hungry.”
Afridi has scored three of the top six fasted centuries in ODIs (One Day Internationals), including the fastest which was made in 37 balls. He has had 288 sixes in ODIs – the most by any player, and is one of only three players who have scored more than 5,000 runs and picked up over 250 wickets in ODIs.
Now is not the time to underestimate Pakistan. Many feel this World Cup will be a defining moment for Pakistani cricket, and believe that a win would bring more than a trophy back to the country. Prominent player Shoaib Akhtar stated, “Pakistan needs to win this World Cup to bring back cricket to Pakistan, the charm back to the country. People of Pakistan are missing cricket, they are dying to watch players from all over the world playing against Pakistan.”
Perhaps this is the year they’ll have that chance.
ooooo bongey u love dhoni and tendulkar ?
:)
i love my criket team and im also love shahid afridi and imran khan plz win the matches of world cup T20 extra match etc
ooooooo u love shahid and i love dhoni and tendulkar
:P
Pakistan national cricket team
Pakistan cricket crest
Test status granted 1952
First Test match v India at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi in India. From 16–18 October 1952.
Captain Test cricket:
Misbah Ul-Haq
One Day International:
Shahid Afridi
Twenty20:
Shahid Afridi
Coach Waqar Younis
Official ICC Test and ODI ranking 6th in Test cricket, 5th in One Day International and 1st in Twenty20 International [2]
Test matches
– This year 336
Last Test match v Australia at Bellerive Oval, Hobart in Australia. From 14–18 January 2010,
Wins/losses
– This year 107/99
The Pakistan National Cricket Team is an International cricket team representing Pakistan. It is administrated by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Pakistan is a member of the International Cricket Council and has professional teams representing in Test cricket, One Day International and Twenty20 matches.
Pakistan are the ICC Cricket World Cup 1992 champions, ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup champions twice in 2004 and in 2006 making them the first and the only team to become back to back champions in the U-19 Cricket World Cup tournaments and they are also the ICC World Twenty20 2009 champions. Pakistan have been semi finalist 3 times in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2000, 2004 and 2009.
After gaining independence from the British Empire in 1947, Pakistan cricket was played before the first Pakistan national team was granted test match playing status. Documentation and archives show that during the 18th century, cricket was played on the western part of India and many successful Indian cricketers played for the English cricket team.[2] It was not until 28 July 1952 that Pakistan started playing test match cricket. Their first match took place in Delhi against India on October of the same year. Their first international tour was to England during 1954. Over the half century, Pakistan has become one of the most challenging and unpredictable teams in the world, the team won the 1992 Cricket World Cup and were runners up in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. The country has produced several world-class players such as Fazal Mahmood, Hanif Mohammad, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Mushtaq Mohammad, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir, Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Waqar Younis, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan.
As of October 2007, the Pakistani team has played 332 Test matches, winning 30.29%, losing 26.76% and drawing 42.94% of its games.[4] The team is ranked sixth in the ICC Test Championship and fourth place in the ICC ODI Championship. On 28 August 2006, Pakistan won its debut Twenty20 International match in England and were runners up in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in September 2007. They won the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets.
History
Following the Partition of India in 1947 and the establishment of the separate province of Pakistan, cricket in the country developed steadily and Pakistan was given Test match status at a meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference at Lord’s Cricket Ground in England on 28 July 1952 following recommendation by India, which, being the successor state of the British Raj, did not have to go through such a process. The first captain of the Pakistan national cricket team was Abdul Kardar.
Pakistan’s first Test match was played in Delhi in October 1952 as part of a five Test series which India won 2-1. Pakistan made their first tour of England in 1954 and drew the series 1-1 after a memorable victory at The Oval in which fast bowler Fazal Mahmood took 12 wickets. Pakistan’s first home Test match was in Dacca in January 1955 against India, after which four more Test matches were played in Bahawalpur, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi (all five matches in the series were drawn, the first such occurrence in test history.
Pakistan playing against Australia at Lord’s in England.The team is considered a strong but unpredictable team. Traditionally Pakistani cricket has been filled with players of great talent but limited discipline, making them a team which could play inspirational cricket one day and then perform less than ordinarily another day. Over the years, competitions between India and Pakistan have always been emotionally charged and provide for intriguing contests, as talented teams and players from both sides of the border elevate their game to new levels to produce high-quality cricket. Pakistani contest with India in the Cricket World Cup have seen packed stadiums and elevated atmospheres no matter where the World Cup has been held.
1986 Australasia CupMain article: Australasia Cup
The 1986 Australasia Cup, played in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, is remembered as a famous last-ball victory for Pakistan against arch-rivals India, with Javed Miandad emerging as a national hero.[8] India batted first and set a target of 245 runs, leaving Pakistan with a required run rate of 4.92 runs per over. Javed Miandad came in to bat at number 3 and Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals. Later recalling the match, Miandad stated that his main focus was to lose with dignity. With 31 runs needed in the last three overs, Miandad hit a string of boundaries while batting with his team’s lower order, until four runs were required from the last delivery of the match. Miandad received a leg side full toss from Chetan Sharma, which he hit for six over the midwicket boundary.
1992 Cricket World CupMain article: 1992 Cricket World Cup
At the 1992 World Cup Semi Final, having won the toss, New Zealand chose to bat first and ended with a total of 262 runs. Pakistan batted conservatively yet lost wickets at regular intervals. With the departure of Imran Khan and Saleem Malik shortly thereafter, Pakistan still required 115 runs at a rate of 7.67 runs per over with veteran Javed Miandad being the only known batsman remaining at the crease. A young Inzamam-ul-Haq, who had just turned 22 and was not a well-known player at the time, burst onto the international stage with a match-winning 60 off 37 balls. Once Inzamam got out, Pakistan required 36 runs from 30 balls, which wicketkeeper Moin Khan ended with a towering six over long off, followed by the winning boundary to midwicket. The match is seen as the emergence of Inzamam onto the international stage.
The 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand marked Pakistan’s first World Cup victory. It is remembered for the comeback Pakistan made after losing key players such as Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar and being led by an injured captain in Imran Khan. Pakistan lost 4 of their first 5 matches and were nearly eliminated in the first round of the tournament after being bowled out for 74 runs against England, until the match was declared as a “no result” due to rain. Imran Khan famously told the team to play as “cornered tigers”, after which Pakistan won five successive matches, including, most famously, the semi-final against hosts New Zealand and the final against England.