PAKISTAN CAPTAIN SHAHID AFRIDI SETS HIS SIGHT ON ICC WORLD TWENTY20 2012

After facing a terrible defeat at the hands of archrivals India in the ICC World Cup 2011 semi-final recently, Pakistan’s limited-over captain Shahid Afridi has set his sight on the next ICC World Twenty20 tournament scheduled to be played in Sri Lanka in 2012.

“The only way I can really overcome the disappointment of our defeat against India is by winning the Twenty20 World Cup,” Afridi said in an interview.

Afridi has said that he is focusing on World T20 2012, because he does not have any idea whether he will be able to play ICC World Cup 2015 to be co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.

“I would love to be around for the 2015 World Cup but that’s like four years away. That`s why I`m just focusing on the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and want us to take the right steps to ensure that we raise a team that is good enough to win that tournament,” the flamboyant all-rounder added.

Pakistan reached the final of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in 2007, where the Men in Green fell to old rivals India, but Afridi emerged as Pakistan’s number one player in the tournament. Later in 2009, the blistering all-rounder played a pivotal role in his team’s title-winning triumph in the second edition of the event.

Moreover, Afridi was leading the side in the third edition of the World T20 championship in 2010, whenPakistan lost to Australia in the semi-final from a seemingly winning position.

Afridi believes his team has a huge chance to go all the way in the fourth edition of the hugely popular competition. “We have won the Twenty20 World Cup before and we can do it again,” the captain added.

The skipper, however, made it clear that it would not be an easy task for the team. He stated that the players have to learn from their mistakes they made in the recent ICC World Cup 2011.

• He explained that India won the recent World Cup because they started preparing for it two years before. Afridi added Pakistan need to put things back on track now. He further cited batting woes as the team’s biggest problem, which needs to be addressed.