England Coach Laments Crowd Support Amidst Feeble Pakistan Twenty20 Performances

Sreelata YellamrazuSep 9 2010

England are on a roll and Pakistan are in the doldrums. That is not good news going into the England Pakistan ODI series that are threatened to be depleted for want of crowd support.

shahid afridi distraught

Two seemingly inconsequential Twenty20 matches passed by without Pakistan making a dent in either one of them. England have continued their Twenty20 juggernaut since winning the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. But there was little excitement over the affair as twice the Pakistan batsmen played without passion and twice succumbed to making rather modest scores by Twenty20 standards. It did not help that the Pakistan coach, Waqar Younis, reportedly talked tough to the cricketers to pull up their socks.

While the odd England hiccup gave room for some interest, it did not help that there was little cheering going with the sparse crowds trying to liven up the game devastated by the match fixing scandals surrounding the Pakistan team. That cricket on the field would then be a diversion was a hope and remained largely one.

The England coach, Andy Flower, felt the scheduling of the two matches at the same venue was as much to blame as scandals that have "undermined" the winning ways of his team. He did not discount the fact that the allegations had had an effort. But surely to keep the cricketers perky, he will certainly be hoping that the England Pakistan ODI series that get underway tomorrow will certainly see a few more enthusiastic faces in the crowd.

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