Discipline could see Pak through

Absurd as it sounds, he is right. Akram has at his disposal an outrageously talented squad which appears to be running into prime form at the right time.He himself ranks among the top all-rounders in the world. Saeed Anwar is among the best opening batsmen and Shahid Afridi among the most destructive pinch-hitters. Shoaib Akhtar is the quickest pace bowler around, Saqlain Mushtaq the canniest One-Day spinner.

There’s youth all-rounder Azhar Mahmood andthe hard-hitting Yousuf Yohanna and there are the old hands the lightning Waqar Younis, the ebullient Mushtaq Ahmed, the well-fed artist Inzamam-ul Haq and the in-form Ijaz Ahmed.

Akram, Waqar and Mushtaq, importantly, have all been hugely successful in the past while playing in England.

If Pakistan had the discipline of the South Africans, this side would never lose. That, however, is not the Pakistani way. The team’s ability to crumble while playing the most motley of teams often in run-of-the-mill One-Dayers, where little rides on the result bar the millions of rupees wagered on the results in Asia is, in fact, one of the principal causes for match-fixing allegations being levelled against Pakistan.

Those claims first surfaced when Shane Warne and two Australian teammates alleged they had been offered money by Salim Malik to lose a Test in 1994. Despite Malik’s denials and a Pakistani probe dismissing the claims, the scandal has never really gone away. Most worryingly of all, several players withinthe team itself have since stated results have been rigged. On one tour, the squad was forced to swear on the Koran by their own management that they would play to win.

Aamir Sohail, sacked as captain in December and replaced by Wasim (who had himself been ousted a year before), says he was not chosen for the World Cup because he would not withdraw claims that some teammates had thrown matches.

Rashid Latif sings a similar tune, even suggesting a dead-rubber match between Pakistan against England as recently as April may have been thrown so players could supplement their incomes with the bookies.

The authorities say it is all sour grapes. Their investigations into match-fixing, meanwhile — Wasim himself is among several players being probed grind on.

What’s certain in all the intrigue and confusion is that Pakistan will not be throwing matches at the World Cup. Akram was the key man behind their 1992 triumph when Pakistan, struggling desperately for fluency, were on the brink of elimination only torecover and win the tournament.

At 32, this is likely to be his tournament swan song. Form is not a problem this time. In February and March Pakistan won the inaugural Asian Test Championship, seeing off India and Sri Lanka, Akram helping himself to two hat-tricks in consecutive matches.

In April, they beat the same opposition again in a tri-nations tournament, then beat India and England in the limited-over Champions Trophy in Sharjah.Their disastrous home Test and one-day defeat against Australia last year is a distant memory.

Javed Miandad’s decision to resign as coach barely three weeks before the World Cup — family commitments, he says, problems with senior players, according to the rumour mill — is unlikely to be too unsettling.

Indeed, if there were problems between Miandad and the players, his exit may even be beneficial.