Pakistan prepare for World Cup opener

Inzamam confident of strong performance

March 4, 2007

Inzamam-ul-Haq is confident Pakistan can do well in the World Cup despite missing key players © AFP

Pakistan go into the 2007 tournament without injured strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif as well as influential allrounder Abdul Razzaq. But Inzamam insists he wants to mark his final World Cup with a victory to add to Imran Khan's memorable triumph 15 years ago.

"Every great player has his time, they serve their time, that's life, that's the way it is so when the time comes, so be it," said Inzamam ahead of his team's two warm-up matches against Canada on Tuesday and South Africa on Friday. Inzamam, second only to Sachin Tendulkar on the all-time list of highest one-day international batsmen with 11,665 runs, also insisted he could recover the kind of form which he enjoyed on his 1992 World Cup debut.

"I am confident and I have worked hard in the nets and I am looking forward to the World Cup and I will do my best at this level," he said. Inzamam played down the significance of losing Shoaib, Asif and Razzaq, and believed Mohammad Sami, Yasir Arafat and Azhar Mahmood will prove adequate replacements. "I believe in our team and we believe in ourselves and definitely we will try do well in the World Cup," he added. "In one-day internationals, every team is tough but one man can change the outcome of a game and one good game can change the whole scenario."

After their warm-up games here, Pakistan head to Jamaica for their opening Group D matches against West Indies. Ireland and Zimbabwe are the other two teams in the group.

© AFP

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Shoaib and Asif out of the World Cup

Players/Umpires

Inzamam-ul-Haq

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ICC World Cup

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Pakistan