By Saj Sadiq
January 20 2003

Its been a relatively quiet phase in the build up for WC03 and most Pakistani fans will be grateful that there have been no rumours or negative stories coming out of the Pakistani camp. Can they do it, which Pakistan will turn up in their first match against Australia, have they got the mental toughness to beat the Indians on 1st March, has Waqar steadied the ship and settled his alleged differences with some of the senior players, will Shoaib behave himself during the tournament, is Razzaq fully fit after his injury and is he the same player he was 18 months ago, is Azhar Mahmood genuinely fit for this tournament, can the Pakistani batting score the runs that their renowned and feared bowling attack require. More questions than answers at this stage and as a Pakistani fan, I am optimistic without being totally confident.

Since the team has returned from their terrible tour of South Africa, things have been very quiet and one only hopes that the squad have had a chance to forget the negatives and think ahead of the positives.

All squad members have been very low key with not too much noise coming from the Pakistani camp. In my opinion the problems with contracts that teams like Sri Lanka and India have faced over the last few weeks will play on their minds, and one can only be thankful that so far the Pakistani preparation has been smooth.

The squad departs on January 23 after a meeting with the team manager Shaharyar Khan and Tauqir Zia, and the departure is supposed to be a grand affair organised by Pepsi. Lets hope that the homecoming is just as grand and not a back entrance at Lahore airport.

Hopefully all internal differences, internal politics and petty disagreements will be left behind in Pakistan and the boys reach South Africa with a renewed vigor, energy, enthusiasm, pride, hunger and camaraderie.

Pakistan have 2 warm up matches before their opening match, against Gauteng on 4 Feb and against Easterns on 6 Feb. Hopefully the team will show their supporters in these 2 warm up matches that they are genuine contenders for the title.

It will be interesting to see how the build up pans out for Pakistan, as the build up itself could be as entertaining as the actual tournament. Many pundits have already written off Pakistans chances and even the bookies seem to be less keen on them, but as we all know we should never write them off.