Warne looms as threat to Pakistan dream (18 June 1999)

18 June 1999

Warne looms as threat to Pakistan dream

Trevor Chesterfield

LONDON (England) - If you believe in the views of Imran Khan, Pakistan have already succumbed to Australia as the World Cup final looms at Lord's tomorrow.

Forget the pace of Shoaib Akthar, the batting of Saeed Anwar and the often clumsy Inzamam-ul-Haq and the leadership of Wasim Akram. It is the Australians who hold the aces.

Shane Warne, however, looms as the danger and has come through as the Wizard 's of Oz gear for a chance to extract a form of revenge for their defeat by Pakistan's sub-continental neighbour Sri Lanka three years and so many moons ago.

Australia, the 'land of opportunity' led by 'captain courageous' in the poker-faced Steve Waugh where no 'job is too big for the men who have all the confidence in the world'; all the tired cliché's which makes anyone wonder if this is not the sort of hype dreamed up in some brash New York Wall Street PRO office so far remote from Lord's that it is alarming. Imran, captain of the last, and first, Pakistan side to win the title at Melbourne in a star-lit March evening in 1992, feels that Pakistan have peaked too quickly; that their defeat of New Zealand, as awesome as it was and with Shoaib deserving of his man of his semi-final match award, in need of some 'counselling' there is the serious impression Imran wants Wasim Akram to fail.

The views, expressed in a tabloid, should not be taken too seriously. Imran is so far removed from the scene that he has to be controversial: an image which suits his arrogance. Pakistan do not need to be told by a former captain how to win. They know how to win and have the players who have the ability to recapture the crown lost in 1996.

Now it is pay back time. The Pakistan players have viewed their campaign as one of success and Akram himself, at a media conference in a plush High Street Kensington hotel did not so much lay out a game plan but a preferred order in how he felt his side could carry out the aims of becoming only the second country to wear the 'rulers of the world' mantle a second time in the tournament's 24-year-old history.

'We have looked carefully at what we have in mind and whatever others think, or how they view our progress, we have reached the final. 'We are one game away from being crowned World champions. It would be a great honour for me and my side to achieve such a dream.'

Steve Waugh was a little more stoic and predictable, repeating much of what he said at Edgbaston on Thursday after the nerve-tingling, dramatic tie with South Africa which squeezed them into the final tomorrow.

He is also aware that Pakistan beat them in one of the great games of this year's tournament, who both sides lost the plot and rediscovered it again. That was at Headingley when on a bitterly cold May day Warne's leg-spin did not have the menace which undermined South Africa's top-order on Thursday. Now he looms as Pakistan's enemy No1: the man who can rip through their batting as Shoaib can tear apart the Australia top-order.

It is a finely balanced match where two teams, having done with all the fencing have to put it together. The points worth watching are going to be Warne bowling to Anwar and Inzamam and Shoaib and Akram to the Australian top-order.

On a pitch which is likely to encourage some turn, though, Warne in his current form looms as the threat which can yet destroy Pakistan's hopes. And not even Imran can do much about it.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield, Pretoria News