Asia Cup Cricket 2008 Begins Today

A tournament that spoke about sub-continental solidarity from the warm climes of Sharjah in 1984, has wheeled to its ninth edition and is all set to make its belated debut in Pakistan on Tuesday.

The STAR Cricket Asia Cup tournament, which commences at Karachi and Lahore, will feature the biggies — host Pakistan, India and defending champion Sri Lanka besides Bangladesh and two minnows in United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.

The teams split into two groups, will lead the way to a round-robin semifinal league that will culminate in the final at the Karachi National Stadium on July 6.

Pakistan, fresh from the title triumph in the Kitply tri-series in Bangladesh, will take on Hong Kong in a Group B match at Karachi on Tuesday while at Lahore, Bangladesh will clash with United Arab Emirates in a Group A match.

Shoaib Malik’s men did well to defeat India in the Tri-Series final but the speculation over Mohammed Asif’s detention and subsequent release from Dubai, PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf’s panic-missive to the team after its league phase loss to India at Dhaka, the persistent queries over why Shoaib Malik has under-bowled himself in recent times, has meant that peripheral issues continue to dog the team.

The tournament is also critical for Pakistan to allay security concerns while international phone lines are burning with anxiety as the Aussies and the England players debate on the forthcoming Champions Trophy that is scheduled to commence here in September.

In an earlier press conference on Sunday, Shoaib Malik spoke about the ‘home advantage’ and the team — with new players in off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, all-rounder Mansoor Ajmad and wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed who replaced Kamran Akmal — needs to capitalise on that besides banking on the experience of Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and the impetuous shots of Salman Butt.

And on Tuesday, Pakistan will hope that the appetiser against Hong Kong will keep it hungry for the bigger battles ahead. And the statistic of Pakistan defeating Hong Kong by 173 runs in the tournament’s last edition at Sri Lanka in 2004, will keep the home team’s players in good humour.

India, won the title on four occasions, the last one in 1995, and will open its Group B campaign against Hong Kong on Wednesday and follow it up with the needle clash against Pakistan on Thursday.

Skipper M.S. Dhoni and his team seemed relaxed on their flight to Karachi on Sunday night and the squad needs to keep its composure for sterner tests ahead.

A berth in the semifinal league is an easy presumption as all that the team needs to do is to defeat Hong Kong but the last four stage that most likely will feature Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from Group A, can be tricky. Even Bangladesh cannot be under-estimated.

It helps that India plays in Karachi all through as three victories from five matches — that includes unexpected heroics from Rajesh Chauhan’s bat in the closing stages on September 30, 1997 — spell good vibes.

Meanwhile in Group A at Lahore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh need to toy with UAE before reaching Karachi for the semifinal league.

UAE, a mix of expatriate talent, will surely take heart from its lone victory in ODIs that came in Lahore against Netherlands way back in the 1996 World Cup.