To the fearless the spoils

The incessant tide of world cricket throws more cricket our way. For once it is welcome, for we in India have seen too many rumours, leaks and the like passing off as news. The allegations from the IPL are serious but sensationalism is not going to help get to the bottom of things. It is now in the hands of auditors, lawyers and tax sleuths; cricket analysts, commentators and reporters, who have had to pose as experts in recent times, can take a break. The IPL needs some peace to sort itself out, create a strong system of self-regulation, perhaps do away with a governing council, and take the right steps towards strengthening brand IPL and, indeed, brand India. So let's go back to watching cricket with old loyalties again; Indians supporting India, Australians supporting Australia, in what is probably the most open world event ever.

It will be interesting to see how much Twenty20 cricket has evolved in 10 months. If there is one thing the IPL has reinforced, it is that teams who play fearless cricket win. Teams who have tried to be defensive, safe, ended up looking anxious and lost. We saw that with Kolkata Knight Riders and we saw that but once from the Mumbai Indians. In England last year we saw South Africa play that way against Pakistan while chasing 150. I am not saying that teams must go hell for leather, self-destruct dramatically, but even closing down the game for two or three overs can be decisive.

Typically, then, teams must seek to play nine batsmen (okay, seven batsmen and two others who can get runs in the last three overs) and six bowlers. It means you must play three allrounders, your wicketkeeper must bat in the top six, and one of those batsmen must be good enough to bowl three or four overs. The conditions in the West Indies will determine whether teams with seam-bowling allrounders have a better chance or others, notably from the subcontinent, who have a greater preponderance of slow bowlers.

For various reasons, two teams catch the eye. Pakistan cricket may be in turmoil but that has rarely been an indicator of how they will play. And Twenty20 is just down their alley. It rewards instinct, freedom and fearlessness, and that has been the hallmark of Pakistan cricket. I suspect that the strength of the Pakistan team diminishes as the duration of the game rises, but in Twenty20 they will always look balanced. They have a spin-bowling allrounder in Shahid Afridi, a seam-bowling allrounder in Abdul Razzaq (both of whom can be match-winners with the bat) and a wicketkeeper who opens the batting. Perfect for balance. I believe the key for them is the quality of the top five batsmen, and Pakistan's fortunes may well be determined by how well those five play.

Australia, on the other hand, slot in among the third tier of teams, placed below Bangladesh at No. 9. It is ironic that theirs are the players most valued in the IPL and in England, but collectively they have been shocking so far. Still, they have far too much going their way this year and should be a very decent bet to go all the way. A top six of David Warner, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Cameron White and Brad Haddin means there is a spinner, a seamer and a wicketkeeper already taken care of. Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait (surely Doug Bollinger must be in there) means four bowlers, two of whom can bat decently. Critically, there is some pace there, which, as the IPL has shown, is back in fashion. It means No. 7 can be a floater and anyone can play there.

India will await the return to form of Yuvraj Singh. If he is in form, India have a serious chance. There is a lot of batting, but without Yuvraj in form it looks a touch incomplete. And while India have a keeper in the top six, all their batsmen bowl slow, which suggests they are a team better suited for slightly sluggish pitches. The big weakness is the absence of a seam-bowling allrounder who could bowl the middle overs and bat at, say, No. 7. And so India must decide whether to play three seamers or get by with two and play both Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja, or indeed Piyush Chawla.

But seriously, any of those three or even Sri Lanka, South Africa, England or the West Indies could go all the way. And don't be surprised if Bangladesh create a little upset somewhere. That group - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia - is the one to watch in the first week.

In India, though, the tournament faces another threat. By May 10, Lalit Modi will have emerged with his defence and we will know then if people want to watch the news or the cricket. Or maybe, the news till 7pm and cricket thereafter!

IPL absentees look for early momentum

Rust could conceivably be a part of it when Bangladesh and Pakistan open proceedings in a tight Group A. The defending champions have played six Twenty20 internationals since last year's final and Bangladesh only two. Neither set of players had any involvement in the IPL, though there was some competitive domestic T20s.

But the format bestows natural flavours to both sides; Pakistan's players are long used to it and of Bangladesh it is said that the shorter the format the greater their opportunity. Bald statistics, in win-loss numbers, don't bear this out but the threat remains greatest surely in this format, given the fine margins on which it is built.

In any case, Bangladesh are much improved recently, as performances against India and England indicate. In Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mashrafe Mortaza they have the makings of a solid spine. Sprinkled around them, Pakistan will do well to understand, is credible danger in men such as Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Mahmudullah and Abdur Razzak.

But even without Umar Gul, Pakistan will take some bringing down. Is there any side in the tournament as flexible? There are five allrounders (not including Kamran Akmal) in the squad and conceivably four of them will make any starting XI. If the batting is thinned, and will miss Shoaib Malik and even Younis Khan from last year, the bowling attack and its variety will be the envy of all.

Both sides are blessed with spin and it may well be a decisive factor.

Form guide (most recent first)

Pakistan WLLWW
Bangladesh LLLLL

Watch out for

Pakistan's middle order is bare, so much will depend on Umar Akmal, their batting discovery of the last year. He hasn't quite exploded in the format just yet, but his skills are far too well-rounded for that to remain the case. He has the shots and the head and a couple of handy innings in the Champions Trophy last year hinted at a temperament for the big stage.

Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh's Atlas, a man eminently capable not only of propping up his side when needed, but dragging them along in his brilliance. In particular, given Pakistan's frailties against left-arm spin, his four overs will have to be carefully monitored. He hasn't struck gold with the bat yet in T20 internationals, but it is only a matter of time.

Team news

Pakistan's ideal line-up should be fairly straightforward, especially the batting, in which there are fairly limited options. The bowling will depend on the surface; if there is spin, they can play two seamers (with Abdul Razzaq the third seamer) and have up to five spinning options. Otherwise they can play three fast bowlers (with Razzaq again) and still have four spinning options.

Pakistan (possible) 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Shahid Afridi (capt), 4 Umar Akmal, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Fawad Alam, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Mohammad Sami, 9 Mohammad Aamer, 10 Mohammad Asif, 11 Saeed Ajmal

Bangladesh (possible) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imrul Kayes, 3 Mohammad Ashraful, 4 Aftab Ahmed, 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Naeem Islam, 7 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 8 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 9 Mashrafe Mortaza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Syed Rasel

Stats and trivia

Bangladesh have lost ten Twenty20 internationals in a row, their last win coming back in September 2007 at the inaugural World T20.

We will surprise India: Afghan coach

St Lucia: Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan has warned the Indians, saying his side were unperturbed by their reputation and will look to exploit the surprise element to dazzle M S DHONI's men in their ICC World Twenty20 opener Saturday.

"On the technical side it is good that they don't know us because when they know about you they will plan.

The coaches will watch the videos and work on our weakness. Luckily, we know everything about them.

We have seen all their IPL games. We will give them a surprise which will make them remember us after the game," Kabir said.

Another important component of their team, all-rounder Karim Sadiq feels the fact that they don't depend on any individual gives them an edge over the mighty Indians.

"They have all performed. We haven't got a certain guy we bank on. We have got a batting line-up which runs down to number eight. And we have got seven bowlers to choose from.

"If one batsman fails, the other one will win us the match. If one bowler doesn't perform, another guy will bowl well. It has been a story of total team performance. I think we have good side which is capable of pulling off an upset," Karim explained.

Captain Nawroz Mangal also exuded confidence and said his side would give their everything and grab the opportunity of playing at such a high level.

"We are very happy that we are here. We worked really hard for it for the last two years and that has put us in the top 12 teams in the competition.

"We know there is a lot of pressure back home. But we have already fought in pressure cooker conditions and we are used to it.

We will give our 100 per cent in this pressure game," said Nawroz. More than their epoch-making performances, Nawroz was glad that cricket had unified the people of Afghanistan.

"It is a great achievement. If we have qualified, it is because of the whole nation's prayers. If the whole nation is praying for you, it means that it is bringing the whole nation together. Cricket is already playing a role in Afghanistan and it can play a major role in the peace process in the region," emphasised the 28-year-old.

"We have been playing together for the last seven-eight years. The players are united and they love their country. They are hungry for cricket and want to prove that they are the next coming cricket team nation in the world.

Afghanistan debut in morning show

Afghanistan make their big-screen debut on Saturday's morning show, a sleeper that suddenly became a smash hit by defying every script written for them. A team from a war-torn, dysfunctional country, with half their players born in refugee camps, they narrowly missed qualifying for the 2007 World Cup but are making up for it with this tournament. They have surprised many an Associate team during their stunning rise from Division Five to a world event. Yet they will know that what they are going to face - the pace of Zaheer Khan, the spin of Harbhajan Singh, the might of MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh - is nothing like anything they have faced so far.

India will know Afghanistan are not quite Bangladesh, but it was a first-match loss to perceived minnows three years ago that knocked them out of the 50-over World Cup. They have not played a warm-up match this time, know little about their opponents and will want to be as alert as against their other group-mates, South Africa. On the other hand, they would like this slow transition from the IPL to top-level international cricket. A win against Afghanistan, no matter what the margin, will more or less assure them a place in the next round. How the tournament would love an upset, though.

The only dampener is the timing of the match. Almost all India games in this tournament have 9.30am starts - 7pm in India - as opposed to the usual evening timings for matches played in the West Indies. Clearly the TV audience gets a preference to the islands hosting the event, only three years after a disastrously organised World Cup. Who will 'Bring It On' at 9.30am?

Form guide (most recent first)

Afghanistan WLWWW
India WLLLL

Watch out for...

Suresh Raina is coming off a successful IPL, where he was Man of the Final, and gave Sachin Tendulkar a fight for the Man-of-the-Tournament award. Will he be able to carry that promise into a big tournament, after having flattered to deceive often?

Mohammad Nabi, an offspinning allrounder, was the leading wicket-taker at the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers, with 13 wickets at 10.53 to ease Afghanistan's way. He scored 58 on his ODI debut and 102 in his first first-class game, and although he doesn't have a body of work behind him in Twenty20s, he has a strike-rate of 134.24 for his 98 runs.

Team news

Twenty20 is not where you experiment, not even against Afghanistan. They might not have had a warm-up match, but don't expect Indian to experiment too much, for this is an important game.

India: (possible) 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 M Vijay, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Rohit Sharma, 7 Ravindra Jadeja/Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Praveen Kumar/R Vinay Kumar, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra.

Afghanistan: (possible) 1 Karim Sadiq, 2 Noor Ali, 3 Mohammad Shahzad (wk), 4 Nowroz Mangal (capt), 5 Hamid Hassan, 6 Mirwais Ashraf, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Samiullah Shenwari, 9 Asghar Stanikzai, 10 Shapoor Zadran, 11 Raees Ahmadzai.

Pitch and conditions

Going by warm-ups, this seems to be a high-scoring venue, and one for giant-killing: inside three days, Zimbabwe have successfully defended 173 and 143 against Australia and Pakistan respectively. Zimbawe's spinners, and Shahid Afridi seem to have enjoyed themselves. What will interest India a bit more is the forecast for scattered showers. A washed-out match against a minnow team can seriously jeopardise progress in such an event.

Stats and trivia

• This will be the first Twenty20 international for Gros Islet.

• Afghanistan's 66.67% is a better success-rate than India's 55% in Twenty20 internationals, but Afghanistan have played only six matches, and that too against Associate teams.

cricket's flagship event

With less than 300 days to go for the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, fans around the world are gearing up for the start of international cricket's showcase event.

The tournament will take place at 13 venues in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka and will open in Dhaka on 19 February 2011 with the final in Mumbai on 2 April.

It will be contested by twelve teams placed in two groups - Group A (Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya) and Group B (India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands).

The prize money for the prestigious event was set by the ICC Board last week at a record US$10m in order to reflect the importance of the competition.

Cricket lovers around the world are set to play a significant role in the success of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - the Cup that Counts. Followers of the game based in the host nations will be able to participate in a unique contest to name the official tournament mascot.