I’ve just been chatting to former Pakistan player, coach and selector Haroon Rashid about Pakistan’s chances against Australia in the one day series with starts on Wednesday.

 

Haroon stated that looking through both squads it would seem that Pakistan has the better and stronger squad composition. Haroon felt that spin will play a key part in this series and Pakistan’s spin trio of Ajmal, Malik and Afridi could prove to be the difference between the two sides.

 

Haroon also mentioned that he felt that the Pakistan batting lineup had more depth compared to the Australian lineup and the overall team was more experienced than the Aussies. He added that he felt the Australian squad was a little “raw” in terms of international experience and this could be vital.

 

I then asked Haroon about the ICC decision to take the World Cup away from Pakistan. Haroon felt that it was a premature decision by the ICC, a hasty one especially given that there are still 2 years to go to the World Cup. Haroon also pointed out that the security situation isn’t exactly ideal in Sri Lanka, India or Bangladesh either and the ICC should have waited for a year before making this decision.

 

Haroon then stated that the question now is of whether the Pakistan team would travel to India for the World Cup given the less than cordial current relations between the 2 countries.

 

Finally I asked him about the PCB stance and efforts in trying to retain the hosting rights for the World Cup. He added that the PCB seem to have been caught a bit cold for this meeting – perhaps they weren’t expecting the tournament to be taken off them and were rather expecting just preliminary discussions at this stage. I’m sure they will go away from this meeting and come up with a strategy to present to the ICC including a financial package to compensate the Board, added Haroon.

 

Once again many thanks to Haroon for his time.