Twenty 20 World Cup 2007, Who is the winner?

By: Shariq M. Qureshi


Malik together with his team mates, let go a life time opportunity, to write his (their) name (s) in the History books, by losing in the first World Cup Final against India, what perhaps is going to be the future of cricket. Yes twenty 20, has certainly all the ingredients to leave behind the conventional Test Match Cricket, and prior to this Twenty 20, the other abbreviated form of Test Matches, in shape of One-dayers as we all know. Twenty 20 is more exiting, result orientated, thrilling and in today's busy life, less time consuming. Dhoni and India will be remembered as the winners of this spectacular game's first World Cup winner.

It was the opportunity not grabed. Pakistan certainly let go this time, and they couldn't capitalize on the start their bowlers had given them, after having outdone India for just 157 runs. Pakistan looked panicked, uncertain and disarrayed. They seemed to have no Game plan what so ever, or rather were playing with a negative mind-set, as to how to go about their inning, instead of sticking to the books, that sudden reshuffle in the batting order, playing Injured Nazir, Resting Fawad Alam, Including Yasser Arafat in the crunch Match whereas he didn't play a single match in the competition before and then not using him properly, Asif looked off-coloured since the Game Pak vs Bang, and still was preferred to open bowling, over Gul and Arafat, in the presence of two other good bowlers he could have been tried in the middle of the innings, went too long with spinners, while Kartik was milking runs on their bowling. Nevertheless, they still managed to restrict India for just 157 runs. But then continued making blunders in Batting, by rearranging the Batting-order, rather then, coming-up with your trump cards up-front, what would have been sending Afridi one-down at least if not opener, instead of Kamran Akmal who hasn’t done any thing in the whole competition. Sending Misbah in, instead of Younis Khan would have been wiser, Afridi and Misbah together with Captain Malik, were capable enough to see Pakistan home and if then was needed, should Younis Khan had come later down the order and have sent Sohail Tanveer after him, who was alien to Indians, and as renowned for his hard hitting what he also showed against them, and the Match was yours. Malik, who initially proved everybody that his selection as the captain, was just, and had led the team from the front, by taking aggression to his opponents, looked confused and unfocused in this all-important match, or was it again behind the scene, those Bookies playing the third party role, who are accused of influencing the games, and can tilt the Match results according to their wishes.

After having watched this Final of the twenty 20, I am inclined to believe in those rumours, which were already in the air that Pakistan will have to lose, otherwise many people's money would be lost, according to some safe estimates the beting on this game had crossed the figure of many billion US dollars, did ICC's watch dogs smell any thing fishy? These cannot just be rumours, that these Bookies are still very much active in turning the results acoording to their will, there must be some truth behind it, and if Players get involved in such practice, and destroy the true essence of sports and competitiveness and stage a live drama on the field; these players, who hijack the feelings of their Nations. Those of them found guilty should be Punished imprisonment and huge fines, so that any Player approached by any such Bookie, should think many times before accepting bribe money from them, those bookies should also be pushed with criminal charges, in order to protect sports from being hijacked by these criminals.

The Corruption in sports, be it use of illegal drugs, to be able to perform better and produce remarkable results, is to some extent detectable. But have these Sports governing bodies, made any contra measures to intercept players, referees or Umpires involved and approaching Bookies as well, the main culprits in this whole scenario, or is it too complex and hard to detect any such figures?