And the Pakistan captain has his reasons. He told ‘The News’ here on Tuesday that one of the main reasons why he wants Pakistan to keep winning their group matches is that consistently good results will give his team much-needed confidence for the knock-out rounds. But perhaps more importantly, it is likely to help them avoid a potentially-explosive clash against old rivals India in the quarterfinals.
“I want to play India in the final, not before that,” he said with a big smile on his face. On a serious note, Afridi said that his team will have a better chance of progressing to the semifinal if it stayed back Dhaka rather than playing against India in front of what would be a hostile crowd in Ahmadabad.
“The biggest reward for us if we topped our group is that we will get to either stay here for our quarterfinal or go to Dhaka. It’s good for us either way. I want to play our quarterfinal in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh because we are completely used to the conditions and in neutral games we would even get the crowd support. But in India it is going to be a different story.”
Afridi, who celebrated his 31st birthday here on Tuesday, said that in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Pakistan can extract ‘home advantage’ provided they are not playing against the host teams.
Pakistan fell to India in the quarterfinal of the 1996 World Cup which was played in highly charged atmosphere in Bangalore. Once again, Pakistan are expected to face a hostile reception from the crowds if they will have to travel to India for any of their World Cup matches especially in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
The Pakistan cricket team hasn’t travelled to India since the incident. Some extremist Indian groups are threatening to block their entry in India if they went to the country to play any of their World Cup matches.
The political tensions between Pakistan and India was the biggest reason why the International Cricket Council made it sure that Pakistan don’t have to travel to India in the initial part of the World Cup by deciding to keep all of Pakistan’s Pool A matches in Sri Lanka.
According to the tournament format, India will play all their knock-out matches on home soil. Sri Lanka will also play their games at home but will have to travel to Ahmadabad if drawn against India in the quarters. In that case, Pakistan will play their quarterfinal in Colombo if they top group A.
Pakistan have realistic chances of doing that after recording back-to-back wins over Kenya and Sri Lanka.
Afridi said that his boys are working really hard to give their best in the tournament. “The players are training with a lot of intensity,” he said. “It’s very important for us that we do well in the World Cup and win it for our country.”
