KARACHI: With just over a year to go before the start of World Cup 2011, Pakistan's chief selector Iqbal Qasim must have experienced that sinking feeling after watching his team getting hammered by Australia in the current one-day series.
Pakistan are fancying their chances of winning a second world title next year but their current form suggests that the Greenshirts have a long way to go before they are treated as serious contenders for the World Cup to be jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Iqbal Qasim, the man who has been entrusted with the job to find a dependable pool of players for the World Cup, admits that his is an uphill task.
"It will certainly need a lot of effort, lot of hard work for us to put our team on the right track for the World Cup," Iqbal told 'The News' in an interview on Friday. "Preparing for the World Cup is definitely our biggest task and hopefully with a combined effort, we will send a strong team for the tournament," he added.
Pakistan have suffered huge blows in their ongoing one-day series against Australia. They have lost all four games so far with the latest defeat coming in Perth where Pakistan crashed to a 135-run loss.
Before the series against the Aussies, Pakistan suffered a disappointing 1-2 series defeat against New Zealand in Abu Dhabi last November. That shock came after the Kiwis stunned Pakistan in the Champions Trophy semifinals in South Africa.
This losing streak is quite surprising for Iqbal, who believes that he and fellow selectors had picked quite a formidable one-day squad for those assignments.
"I still believe that we have a very good one-day team," said Iqbal, a former Pakistan Test spinner. "It seems that the problem is that they haven't played to their potential."
On paper, Pakistan do appear to be a strong side with top performers like Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer and Kamran Akmal in their side.
Iqbal stressed that Pakistan will need to carry out a comprehensive postmortem soon after the conclusion of the tour of Australia before resuming what he described as a "rebuilding stage" ahead of the World Cup.
"A Postmortem is needed because we have to find out the causes behind such a pathetic performance of our team in Australia," said Iqbal.
"The reports from the team manager and coach will be very important. Then we will have to sit down with the captain and listen to his views. That will help us find what really went wrong in Australia."
Pakistan's immediate task is to get ready for a title defense in the ICC World Twenty20 championship in the Caribbean this May but Iqbal is confident about that assignment, saying that Pakistan are pretty clear about their Twenty20 picture.
"Our Twenty20 team is pretty much in order," he said adding that he and fellow selectors will sit down with Shahid Afridi, Pakistan's Twenty20 captain, to decide the line-up for the tournament.
"But the World Cup (2011) is a different matter. It won't be that easy to prepare a good team for it."
Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan coach, has stressed the need for the infusion of young blood in the team. He told 'The News' in Sydney last Sunday that Pakistan can do well in the World Cup but only by bringing in a few more fresh faces in their team.
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