Much more than even before, Pakistan need a shot in the arm to put themselves back on the track, regain their status as a major cricketing nation and above all save their reputation that has hit a new low because of a match-fixing scandal revolving around some of their brightest stars.
Alarmingly, more and more critics around the cricketing world are talking about how Pakistan are hurting cricket's integrity and why they should be banned from the international game.
But thankfully, other saner voices are backing Pakistan with the belief that this country which has over the years given the world some of the most exciting of cricketers is still a vital member of the international cricket community and should remain as one in the future.
What we need is to prove our supporters right. We should use World Cup 2011 as a platform to reassert our credentials as cricketing force.
Pakistan can provide their cricket with a much-needed boost by winning the World Cup in spite of all odds though it would need a much bigger miracle that the one they produced under the legendary Imran Khan back in 1992.
At the moment, one sounds a bit too optimistic when discussing the possibility of Pakistan winning the World Cup to be played in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka from Feb.19-April 2.
After all, Pakistan have gone through a major turmoil because of allegations of corruption against three of the country's leading cricketers - Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif.
Two more including former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik have failed to secure clearance from the country's cricket authorities apparently due to suspected links with match-fixers.
That's not all.
The team's performance in recent times isn't reassuring either. Since winning the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 crown in England, Pakistan has mostly flirted with disaster. Their performance graph touched rock bottom in Australia. They failed in their World Twenty20 title defense in the Caribbean. They crashed out of the four-nation Asian Cup in Sri Lanka and were highly inconsistent on the tour of England. They've also failed to win any ODI series in quite a long time.
But that doesn't mean Pakistan have no hope in the lead up to World Cup 2011.
They still have in their one-day squad players like Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal and Umar Akmal. On his day, each one of them can be a match-winner.
What Pakistan need is to have somebody at the helm who can bring the best out of these players and the rest of his teammates.
What Pakistan primarily need is a captain who can lead from the front and instill self-belief among his colleagues.
In a nutshell, what Pakistan need is someone who can successfully carry the sort of role that Imran Khan performed for them 18 years ago in Australia and New Zealand.
He may not be an ideal player for captaincy, but at the moment Shahid Afridi is Pakistan's best bet as far as World Cup leadership is concerned.
Afridi, 30, is the most experienced player in our ODI squad and is widely seen as the man with the best credentials for captaincy among the current lot.
He certainly has his drawbacks. Afridi's tendency to just throw away his wicket every now and then has earned him many critics over the years. His decision to 'chew' the ball during a one-day game against Australia last year only added many more to that list.
But the flamboyant all-rounder has the ability to completely transform himself into a reliable match-winner. He proved that by playing a major role in Pakistan's successful World Twenty20 campaign in the summer of 2009. Later, he proved that again during last year's Asia Cup in Sri Lanka when he hit two back-to-back centuries even as the wickets fell around him.
Pakistan needs Afridi to be at his best in the World Cup, both as a captain and senior player. Odds are stacked heavily against the Pakistanis as they enter in the final stages of their World Cup preparations. They will have to fight like cornered tigers.
Afridi's biggest job, apart from giving his best with both the bat and ball, will be to unite his players.
Some of the senior ones like Razzaq and Shoaib Akhtar are his close buddies. That should certainly help him. But it's about the entire team. One can sense that there are still cracks within the team and with little time left to gel them together, Afridi will have to act fast. He should use the One-day International series against New Zealand to put his team back on track both in terms of results and team spirit.
Both are, in a way, interconnected. Good results are needed to promote harmony in the dressing room. Afridi will also have to ensure that his boys stick together even when swimming against the tide.
World Cup 2011 will produce enough testing times both for Afridi and his team. How they cope with them will decide how far they can go in the tournament.
Afridi has played in the last three World Cups and knows how it feels to qualify for the final and to get knocked out in the first round. He must be well aware that careers and reputations can be made or destroyed during the course of one such tournament.
Imran Khan is regarded among the world's best all-rounder of all time and yet many of us remember mostly as the man who led us to World Cup glory. Inzamam-ul-Haq is one of the finest batsmen Pakistan have ever produced but many of us remember him as the man who led us to disaster in World Cup 2007.
As Pakistan's captain for World Cup 2011, Afridi could follow in the footsteps of either of those men. For the sake of Pakistan cricket, one hopes he takes the right path.
