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Stalwarts predict start of new era
Former greats predicted that victory over India in the one-day series was the start of a new era for Pak cricket but feared for India's Tendulkar.
Pakistan's former greats predicted that victory over India in the one-day series was the start of a new era for Pakistan cricket but feared the beginning of the end of Sachin Tendulkar's illustrious career.
"Pakistan is no more a one-man team. You had Younis Khan marshalling the troups when Inzamam-ul-Haq was in the dressing room, you had Rana Naved-ul-Hasan excelling on docile pitches in the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami and finally you developed six excellent batsmen from Shahid Afridi and down. I think this is an excellent combination and from now, this team should only improve," said 35-year-old Basit Ali, who scored 858 runs in 19 Tests and 1,265 runs in 50 One-Day Internationals.
"This (tour) has to be the start of the Pakistan's preparations and build-up for 2007 World Cup."
But he added: "I think this series has started the end of Sachin Tendulkar's career. He got some runs but he clearly lacked in confidence and his usual near perfect stroke selection was also poor. In this series he was clearly a shadow of Sachin we know. Maybe Pakistan planned well against Sachin but he was unable to get out of the web like he has done in the past when he thrashed all gameplans against him."
Sachin Tendulkar scored 124 one-day runs in the series at 24. In the Test series, the little master scored 255 at little over 50 but more surprisingly failed to get the record 35th Test century.
Basit's observation on Tendulkar would certainly create panic in Indian cricket that is already in tatters following question marks on the career of Sourav Ganguly with John Wright to be replaced by another coach.
Former captain Saeed Anwar said Pakistan had shown a lot of character when they bounced back in the mother of all series' after having being thrashed on a previous tour in Australia.
"Playing back-to-back tough series' (Australia and India) and performing in a more testing second series after a disastrous previous tour, clearly indicates that Pakistan cricket is on the rise and maybe it's the start of a new era for Pakistan cricket," he said.
