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Pakistan will play three one-day matches in Australia starting middle of June, two at an indoor stadium in Melbourne and one under open skies in Brisbane. For both teams, it is an opportunity to size up each other.

Australia will be at full strength, it being assumed that the Waugh brothers are out of the reckoning in this version of the game. Pakistan will be without Abdul Razzaq and Saqlain Mushtaq, both on County duty in England. This leaves Pakistan without its key all-rounder and its best, specialist spinner.

Notwithstanding, Pakistan, on paper, remains a strong side. I am delighted that Saeed Anwar has been included though he will be woefully out of match practice, but Saeed Anwar needs time out in the middle and nothing is really at stake in the matches in Australia. No one can quarrel with the team that has been selected.

I would presume that Shahid Afridi will be in the playing eleven but where will he be slotted in the batting order? Shahid Afridi has an extra claim by virtue of his bowling and Pakistan will need his leg spin or his version of it. Shahid Afridi is a bona fide all-rounder. Too bad, he doesn't get to bowl much.

Among the officials who will accompany the team, five in all, I notice there is no trainer. Perhaps, it is felt that Pakistan doesn't need one. The Sri Lankans who are touring England have in their squad, a coach, Dave Whatmore, a batting coach, Barry Richards, a bowling coach Darryl Foster and two physios, one of whom, presumably is a trainer. Whether or not he is, Sri Lanka is one of the best fielding sides in the game. They not only hold on to the catches but also have the ability to hit the stumps in effecting run outs.

While it is great to see the setting up of academies, I think we should also concentrate on sending 'A' teams on tours. I would imagine that there would be some reluctance on the part of the hosts to meet the expenses of such tours, there being no revenue that can be generated, but the PCB should try and find sponsors and meet some of the expenditure themselves. It would be money well spent.

The West Indies won the Test series against India in style and what is important, without any significance contribution from Brian Lara. The Indians, understandably, are not happy about losing the series but a lot of people in the cricket world are delighted that the West Indies are showing signs of a resurgence. What had been missing from the West Indies teams of recent times was self-belief.

They appeared to have found it and for the first time one gets the impression that the players are behind Carl Hooper. He has, of course, led from the front. Here was an immensely gifted batsman who was something of an enigma. He did not seem to be at peace with himself. He walked out on the game. But he seems to have found himself, television pictures of his wife and son, Carl Jr showed a happy family. Hooper made a bundle of runs himself and led the team with a quiet assurance.

He seemed unflappable in contrast to the somewhat excitable Ganguly. But the star of the show was Chanderpaul who batted with a tenacity that one does associate with a West Indies batsman, more like Hanif Mohammad or Sunil Gavaskar or Geoff Boycott.

He batted in the middle order, the last of the specialist batsmen. If there was early collapse, he consolidated the innings, if the West Indies had got off to a good start, he cashed in on it. He was the batsman for every occasion and indeed every contingency as he showed in the West Indies second innings at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica.

The West Indies batsmen batted in that second innings like sailors on shore leave. It was Chanderpaul in the unlikely company of Pedro Collins who took the West Indies to a match-winning score. The West Indies still don't have the bowling to win matches away from their beautiful islands.

Mervyn Dillon had a good series but he cannot be compared to a Glenn McGrath or Shaun Pollock and to Pakistan's trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Yunis and Shoaib Akhtar. One associate West Indies cricket with bowlers of genuine pace. There does not appear to be an Andy Roberts or Malcolm Marshal or Courtney Walsh in sight. That is why the team will struggle when it plays abroad. Its bowling is rather like that of Sri Lanka minus Muralitharan.

The Indians seem to have given themselves a complex about winning a series abroad. It plays on their minds. They lost to a better team but they allowed the West Indies to become the better team.

The football World Cup starts in the next few days. I don't write on football as a rule because I am just a distant devotee of the game. But I will stay glued to the television set. And in the midst of all the gloom, the football World Cup will stand out as a beacon. Not arms or diplomacy but sports is the best bet for world peace. If you are angry, kick a football. Not fire a gun or drop bombs.

© Dawn