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Team leaves for Nairobi: Karachi, Oct 2: The Pakistan cricket team left for Saudi Arabia on way to Kenya sans Yousuf Youhana on Monday to participate in the $ 1 million ICC knockout tournament starting in Nairobi from Oct 3.

Yousuf Youhana will fly directly to Kenya on Tuesday evening and join the team at the same it reaches Nairobi. The Pakistan team will be in transmit in Makkah for 30 hours during which it will perform Umra.

Pakistan has been given a bye in the first round. They play the quarter-final on Oct 8 against the winners of West Indies and Sri Lanka who face each other on Oct 4.

The team is being led by wicket-keeper Moin Khan who sounded optimistic over the team's chances but refrained from making any predictions.

"The team is formidable with the return of frontline players. But in a knockout format, it is very difficult to predict a victory," he said on the eve of his departure.

Wasim Akram, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saqlain Mushtaq have returned for national duty after missing out the last competition in Singapore. Moin also stages a comeback after skipping the Singapore triangular because of knee injury.

Pakistan has been drawn in a comparatively easier half. If they win the quarter-final, their opponents in the semi-final would either be New Zealand or Zimbabwe who play the other quarter-final on Oct 9. The other half is a death pool with defending champions South African drawn with Australia, India and England.

Moin admitted that Pakistan was in an easier half as compared to the other one but emphasised that his team ought to play good cricket in order to qualify for the final and then win it. "We can't be complacent by going through the two halves.

"This is a season opener and a buildup for the home series against England. Naturally a victory in Nairobi would lift the morale of the players," he said.

Ironically, Pakistan will play the quarter-final with the team against whom they have not enjoyed success recently. Pakistan lost the double header to Sri Lanka in the Sri Lanka triangular competition and though Pakistan won the triangular in the West Indies, they lost thrice to the home team in five matches.

Moin Khan said the batsmen needed to fire up to give their bowlers an even chance to win the games. "Our bowlers have done excellently in the recent past. But now it is time for the batsmen to contribute evenly.

"Inzamam-ul-Haq has been shouldering the responsibility of scoring bulk of the runs. But now the other batsmen have to rise and show their potential. The return of Ijaz Ahmad strengthens the middle-order which leaves no excuses for a failure."

Inzamam has scored over 950 runs in the 29 one-day internationals he has played this year. He averages 40.

"Courtesy the depth in our batting, we can recover from a disasterous start but can never post a match-winning total if the top order doesn't deliver. Which means the key to our success will be how the batsmen flare up," the world record holder of dismissals behind the wickets in one-day cricket added.

Javed Miandad, Pakistan coach, said he was confident that the team would perform well. He said the players have done all the hard work in the training camp and was convinced that it would pay back.

"We are taking this competition very seriously because this is the contest which will be the platform for the rest of the season. It is always a great feeling to start any season victorious. Victory makes a world of difference to the morale of the players," he said.

Pakistan last played in Kenya in 1996 in the four-nation tournament where it finished losing finalists to South Africa.

The team which left is:

Moin Khan (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq (vice-captain), Saeed Anwar, Imran Nazir, Salim Elahi, Ijaz Ahmad, Yousuf Youhana, Faisal Iqbal, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Abdur Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Saqlain Mushtaq and Arshad Khan.

Coach: Javed Miandad. Manager: Brig (retd) Mohammad Nasir.

© Dawn