The Cable & Wireless Series: A Review

The C&B series started around tree weeks ago. At a glance Pakistan looked liked the team to beat .The reason for this was that Zimbabwe have looked like winning consistently so they weren't in the race. On the other hand the West Indies hadn't won enough matches to be backed to beat World Cup runners up, Pakistan.

Pakistan entered the tournament with problems of their own. They were missing the likes of Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq, Saeed Anwar and Azhar Mehmood through injury. The omission of Lara, Walsh and Chanderpaul weakened the Windies young side even more, and the odds were stacked heavily in favour of Pakistan. Even without the injury plagued members Pakistan was a formidable side.

As it turned out during the Groups Stage West Indies surprised everyone by beating both Zimbabwe and Pakistan twice and qualified for the finals. On the other hand Pakistan managed to beat Zimbabwe in both their matches but on both occasions the team seemed careless and sluggish.

During the preliminary matches the men from the Islands played brilliant cricket. They bowled, batted and fielded exceptionally well. With only one experienced fast bowler few were expecting a successful defence of a smallish total of 212 against Pakistan in one of the matches. But an outstanding performance by King and Rose shocked everyone as West Indies comfortably won the match. The promotion of Jimmy Adams to captaincy has had a good effect on him and the team. He has made all the members realize that all of them have to play their parts and that an individual's brilliance cannot account for the team's success. This sort of spirit has inspired players like Phillo Wallace and Ricardo Powell to bat responsibly whereas earlier they would throw their wickets away playing reckless shots.

Pakistan performed listlessly in all four matches never once giving a 100 percent. Amongst the batsmen only Inzimam scored consistently. And amongst bowlers Razzaq, Mushtaq and Arshad played their part. Wasim and Waqar looked off-colour and weren't able to pick up wickets which are crucial to a team's success. Moin Khan will be hoping that they return to form once the finals come.

Well the most disappointing team of the tournament has been Zimbabwe. Many expected them to do well ads they had reached the Super Six stage in WC'99. But this was not to be. They never looked like winning a match and weren't ever in a position to dominate proceedings in their four matches. Even when they had the opportunity they didn't capitalize and finish the job.

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