BOMBAY, 21 July 2004 — The Asia Cup, for long a reluctant cricket tournament, what with both India and Pakistan shying away from participation, will, for the first time, be an event that everyone is looking forward to with tremendous eagerness.
India have taken part in only two of the four tournaments so far and on one occasion had sent a second string team. Pakistan have treated this tournament with a little better respect.
Now, for the big event that opens in Sri Lanka, for the first time, there will be half a dozen teams in the fray, a fact that has encouraged the Asian Cricket Council to have a more elaborate format of matches.
The six teams have been divided into two groups, with Pakistan Hong Kong and Bangladesh being placed in Group “A” and India, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates in the other group. It is indeed a big occasion for newcomers UAE and Hong Kong to give a good account of themselves. There is no doubt that cricket in UAE is popular, with Sharjah being the busiest one-day cricket center in the world. UAE have also had the honor of playing in the 1996 World Cup.
After round-robin matches in the first stage, the top two teams from each group will go into the second round where again there will be league matches. The top two teams will make it to the final, which is scheduled for Aug. 1.
The tournament is being labeled as an ultimate clash between India and Pakistan, with the former holding the edge on the basis of their successful tour of the neighboring country recently. But while predicting this, people seem to forget that Sri Lanka have always been a force to reckon with, especially when they are playing at home. The world’s top spinner Muralitharan, who did not play in Australia, will be back in the side and will make their attack stronger.
India have probably the strongest batting line-up in the world at the moment and also boast of a young and enthusiastic pace attack. With the return of left-arm medium-pacer Zaheer Khan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, the Indian attack will be better than what it was on the last tour of Pakistan, when the side missed both Harbhajan and Zaheer.
Shoaib Akhtar, though still problematic as far as skipper Inzamam ul-Haq is concerned, will give the Pakistan attack a cutting edge. The skipper, however, will have to hope for the other leading batsmen to perform as consistently as he has been doing.
So, as a spectacle, this Asia Cup will have quite a long list of star-performers. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have so many top players to talk of. Add to this the few exciting players that Bangladesh have at the moment. They will have been greatly encouraged with their spirited display in the West Indies recently.
In more than one way, the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka will be a forerunner of a great season ahead. In August, India and Pakistan will play a tri-series in the Netherlands, with Australia being the third team. Thereafter the 14 teams, the same number as takes part in the World Cup, will converge in England for the ICC Champions Trophy tournament.
India then play hosts to Australia and South Africa and Pakistan will have Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka visiting them. Pakistan will then tour Australia towards the end of the year. All in all, hectic schedules for both India and Pakistan, so much so that they have had to shelf Pakistan’s return visit to India to a later date, probably early next year.
Of immediate interest to both, however, is the Asia Cup. The success of this event, for which so much care has been taken, will lead the way toward a holding of a bigger futuristic event to cover the entire Afro-Asian region. The formation of such a body, which will include South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, is the dream of India’s influential cricket official Jagmohan Dalmiya. One must remember that the ICC Champions’ Trophy was Dalmiya’s creation. With support coming from so many countries, there is no reason why his next ambitious project should not reach fruition.
