Imran Khan sees World Cup as most open yet

Imran Khan

KARACHI,  (Reuters) – Pakistan’s former World  Cup-winning captain Imran Khan has said this year’s tournament  is the most open he has seen.
Imran, who skippered Pakistan to victory in 1992, said the  opening matches in the Feb 19-April 2 tournament being held in  India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had highlighted the fact that no  team stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field.

Imran Khan
Imran Khan

“This is perhaps the most wide open World Cup I have seen  and after the results of the India and England match and the way  Ireland upset England I don’t think there are any clear  favourites,” he told Reuters on Friday.
Ireland pulled off one of the biggest shocks in the 36-year  history of the event by beating England by three wickets on  Wednesday in Bangalore after being set 328 to win. England and  co-hosts India tied on Sunday.
“The pitches in all three countries will support the batsmen  more as the month progresses and it is very hot and humid at  this time of the year. So you need to have maximum wicket-taking  bowlers in your side to do well,” he said.

PURE PACE
He pointed out that India’s bowling was exposed in their  game against England.
“Teams which don’t have variety and pure pace in their  bowling and prefer to rely more on batting all-rounders are  already facing problems,” he added.
The former cricketer-turned politician felt that Ireland were  capable of causing more upsets in Group B before the  quarter-finals. Kevin O’Brien scored the fastest ever World Cup  century in 50 balls.
“The century by Kevin O’Brien was one of the best one-day  innings I have seen in my life. The Irish are a fighting unit  and I don’t think you can rule them out of contention by any  stretch of the imagination,” Imran said.
“Teams which have the mental strength to chase down 300 plus  totals have to be respected.”
He said Pakistan’s shoddy performance against Canada on  Thursday which they only won by 46 runs was a wake-up call for  the players but still backed his compatriots to make the  quarter-finals.
“To me the real contests will start from the knockout stage.  I think the International Cricket Council (ICC) need to rethink  the format for future World Cups.”
Imran said the ICC needed to help associate members build up  domestic structures in their countries rather than just  providing them opportunities to play in international  competition.
“Unless these minnows don’t have proper domestic cricket  they can’t come up,” he said.
The ICC said before the tournament started that it would  reduce the number of teams playing from 14 to 10 for the next  edition in Australia and New Zealand in 2015.