Afridi and Co hope to make up for lost time

Waqar confident his team will do well in World Twenty20 despite all odds

KARACHI: The clock is ticking. Pakistan faced a race against time as they flew out of Lahore for Kolkata via Abu Dhabi in the wee hours of Saturday, knowing that they have precious little time to get fully ready before opening their ICC World Twenty20 campaign on March 16 at Eden Gardens.

A late decision from the government that cleared their participation in the World Twenty20 means that Pakistan will miss the first of their two warm-up games which was supposed to be played against a local side in Kolkata on Saturday (today).

The Pakistanis will reach the capital of West Bengal after a pretty long journey and will need to quickly switch into competitive mode as they will play their only warm-up game against Sri Lanka ahead of Wednesday’s opening game against a Qualifier.

The two games will take place in the lead up to the big one – a mouth-watering clash against old rivals and hosts India on March 19 at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.

Due to the fact that Pakistan are facing threats from Hindu hardliners, the players were given a pull-out option by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

But a Pakistan team official told ‘The News’ that neither of the players had any thoughts of pulling out of the all-important assignment.

“All the players are focused on the assignment and confident of giving their best in India,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s head coach Waqar Younis buried his hatchet with captain Shahid Afridi.

Waqar in fact told reporters in Lahore on Friday that he had no differences with Afridi.

“I have no rift with Afridi. It’s just something that has been created by the media,” he said.

It’s an open secret that Waqar and Afridi have seldom enjoyed good relations especially after the latter resigned as captain during Waqar’s previous stint as Pakistan coach.

Waqar made it clear that the World Twenty20 was Afridi’s last chance to lead Pakistan to a major international title.

“Shahid is in the twilight of his career and I think that this is his last chance of winning something big,” he said.

The former Test pacer expressed his relief at the team getting clearance from the government to fly to India.

“It is a good development because we want to go to India and do well there. We are looking forward to the match with India on March 19,” he said.

The coach admitted that in the last six months the performance of the team in limited-over cricket had been below-par.

“In the last six months our form has not been good but I think the World T20 gives us a very good platform to bounce back strongly.”

He didn’t think all the delay over getting clearance to fly to India would affect the team’s showing in India.