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Journalism of Courage
SHARJAH, APRIL 6: Come April, it’s carnival time here in Sharjah and Dubai. People here, especially the expatriates, seem to mix their shopping with cricket reasonably well. Hence, it is most appropriate that the Asian cricket caravan moves from India to the desert venue just in time for the Dubai shopping festival.
It has been a hectic year for both India and Pakistan. But this Coca-Cola Cup, a three-nation day-night affair, will be the last chance for the teams to tune up for the World Cup.
While India and Pakistan have been playing non-stop for the last four months, the English haven’t had any competition since the Ashes and the WSC a couple of months ago. With the seventh edition of the mega event returning to the venue of its origin, England will be keen to fine tune their preparation, which has been wracked by controversy over World Cup payments for the players.
The English cricketers are not frequent visitors to the offshore cricketing venue, although they carry sweet memories of their lonetriumph here two seasons ago, under Adam Hollioake.
India were victorious in their last two visits to the venue, thanks to Sachin Tendulkar. Against the Australians last April, he struck two masterly centuries. Unfortunately, a back injury has forced Tendulkar to skip the tournament this time. Not only will the Indian team sorely miss him, even the Indian expatriates here in the Emirates will be hugely disappointed.
The importance of Tendulkar to the team was emphasised in no small measure during the recent tri-series when the Indians surrendered meekly to their Pakistani counterparts, thrice-in-a-row.
Pakistan are here with their confidence sky-high. They drew the two-Test away Tour of India; won the inaugural Asian Test Championships and then took the Pepsi triangular series. A team which was in tatters three months ago, has combined into a winning one, too, under Wasim Akram.
On current form, Pakistan look favourites to add the Sharjah title to their kitty and that should come as a perfect moralebooster to their World Cup hopes. The return of Salim Malik and Waqar Younis will only serve to strengthen the squad for World Cup.
Sharjah has come a long way since the days the game of cricket was played on the desert sands, when nobody believed that first-class cricket could be played in the Gulf. Sharjah needed support as a venue for holding international cricket. Now, Sharjah is the busiest centre, having staged the most number of one-dayers, leaving Melbourne and Sydney far behind.
Cricket under the lights has become a permanent feature, after it first staged the first day-night tournament in December 1997, with the Akai Singer Champions Trophy, featuring, India, Pakistan, England and the West Indies.
From a modest beginning, Sharjah has become a permanent feature of cricket calendar, staging on an average of two tournaments a year. The hype, the glamour and the general atmosphere besides, of course, the prize money along with generous benefits for the players has added to the aura of cricket inSharjah.
The venue has witnessed various exciting finishes in the past, including the last-ball six, an 18-ball 50, two hundreds in the same match and hat-tricks. All these of course are intrinsically linked with huge cash prizes for the performers.
At the same in the last decade, Sharjah has transformed into a cricketers’ paradise with unmatched facilities and cricketing atmosphere. This venue after a modest beginning has raced ahead of many established centres and is now set to establish yet another record: that of staging the most number of day-night matches.
At the end of the finals of the current series, 146 One-Day Internationals would have been played at the venue.
WE’RE THE BEST: Pakistan team coach Javed Miandad, who has happy memories of his several knocks — including the famous last-ball six of Chetan Sharma — said that the current Pakistan team was the best among the three participating teams for the Coca-Cola Cup. “Our morale is high after the successful tour of India. We aresure of winning the title here as well. We are not worried about either England or India,” he said on arrival here.
Teams
England (from): Nick Knight, Nasir Hussain, Alec Stewart (c & wk) , Graham Thorpe, Mark Ealham, Graeme Hick, Adam Hollioake, Neil Fairbrother, Vince Wells, Andrew Flintoff, Ian Austin, Angus Fraser, Robert Croft, Darren Gough, Allan Mullaly.
Pakistan (from): Wasim Akram (c), Moin Khan (wk), Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul Haq, Yousuf Youhanna, Salim Malik, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzak, Mushtaq Ahmed.
Prizes galore
The winning team will pick up US $ 50,000, while the runners-up will take home US $ 30,000 and the third team will get US $ 20,000 from the Coca-Cola Cup tournament starting tomorrow.
Besides, the man of the match in preliminary rounds will get $ 1,000 and the man of the series will be richer by $ 3,500. The attraction does not just stop there. The batsman, striking the fastest 50, the bestbowler and the best fielder will earn $ 1,000 each.
