Can Pakistan win the 2007 Cricket World Cup?

The Pakistan national team is having a lot of problems lately heading for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

First, they lose pace bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif. Both Pakistan players were ruled out of the World Cup because of injuries.

Shoaib Akhtar, who has played just one test and four one-dayers since last February due to fitness concerns, has been unable to recover from a knee injury that forced him to be sent back from South Africa last month.Mohammad Asif, on the other hand, has been carrying a niggling elbow problem since that tour and the pair were receiving treatment in London but neither will be fit enough to participate in the tournament in the Caribbean, which starts on March 13.

''Yasir Arafat and Mohammad Sami will be sent as their replacements,'' Pakistan Cricket Board chief selector Wasim Bari said.

The loss of Pakistan will definitely be a major problem for their Cricket national team. Pakistan was hoping to open up their tournament with a win over West Indies. Without Akhtar and Asif, doing that will be near to an impossibility.

''It is a big blow for us, but I am confident that Yasir Arafat and Mohammad Sami will live up to the expectations,'' Pakistan head coach Bob Woolmer said. ''They will join the team in a week's time and we hope to overcome our injury problems with a united team effort.''

And to make matters worse, it seems injured Mohammad Asif believes that the Pakistan cricket national team is being treated differently because of their Islamic faith. Asif believes that they are being treated unfairly because of their religion.

The Pakistan cricket national team sure has been under a lot of controversies lately and these developments certainly proves just that. Pakistan was also under the spotlight when they forfeited the last Test with England at The Oval when they refused to take the field after umpire Darrell Hair had penalized them for ball-tampering, a charge of which they were later acquitted.

Can Mohammad Asif still help Pakistan win the 2007 Cricket World Cup? Who will be the 2007 Cricket World Cup champions? Sports Interaction has the odds:

Australia 2.50

India 8.00

England 9.00

New Zealand 10.00

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Pakistan Cricket 2007 Cricket World Cup