India's Rohit Sharma signs autographs after an ODI cricket match. (AP/PTI) With hosting a World Cup comes – not just the support of the home crowd, but also – the pressure of the home crowd.
Former Pakistan World Cup winning seamer Wasim Akram knows it. With India less than three months away from staging the ODI World Cup, Akram believes that while their fate in the tournament will be decided by the players at hand, it will also be affected by the added pressure of the home crowds.
“Of course… India have Mohammed Shami, who is very impressive and is bowling like a dream, but Bumrah needs to remain fit. I don’t know what his situation is in terms of fitness but if he is fine, it will make a huge different. Besides, they have really good spinners and all-rounders – Jadeja, Ashwin – let’s see who plays. There have been some really good players coming from India but there are certain disadvantages of home ground. In 2011, India won but there is always an extra added pressure. Same with Pakistan. If they were the hosts, the pressure would be on them. Vice-versa,” Akram told Radio Haanji.
When asked about the challenges Pakistan shall face in terms of the conditions at the different venues, Akram went, “See, I said this earlier as well. If I am asked to play on a certain date and at a certain venue, I have to play. Be it Ahmedabad, or Chennai, or Kolkata, or Mumbai… this does not affect players. So just play and don’t worry about it.”
There’s a possibility of the India-Pakistan game in the World Cup to be rescheduled, but the match will not be moved from Ahmedabad.
But it’s not the only one that could see a change, as there have been requests by member boards to tinker with three or four fixtures.
“Two or three member boards have requested for a tweaking of the schedule, and it’s their right. We are working on it with the ICC. The venues will not change, as it will give rise to several logistical challenges. What we are looking at is that if a team has six days between matches, we reduce it to five, and if a team has two days between games, we make it three. Teams should get adequate time to travel, rest and train between matches at a World Cup,” BCCI Secretary Jay Shah told reporters last week with regards to a change in the schedule.
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