In view of the fact that that South Africa had already announced their intentions of fielding an all pace attack, Rashid Latif also advocated the need of including medium pacer Kabir Khan instead of off spinner Akram Raza because he felt it would be in the team's benefit to have four pace bowlers with Aamir Sohail and salim Malik sharing the remaining ten overs.

The refusal of the captain and the manager to accept all these suggestion led to heated debate between the three in the dressing room before and after the toss at Wanderers on Thursday. According to informed sources, Rashid Latif was greatly upset over the way Pakistan had crashed to a shocking defeat in the first final and most of his team-mates had literally gifted away their wickets after Aamir Sohail had butchered the South African attack in the first seven overs.

The fact that Abdur Rehman Bukhatir of Sharjah's Cricketer Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) had already flown into Cape Town along with a couple of friends led some players to believe the team had lost the match in an abnormal manner. According to sources, on the eve of the second final Rashid Latif had conveyed his feelings to the manager and the captain along with the mentioned suggestion.

But the situation turned ugly on Thursday afternoon when skipper Salim Malik, Manager Intikhab Alam and a couple of other players insisted on batting second in case Pakistan wins the toss.

The proposal was strongly resisted by vice captain Rashid Latif and a couple of young players, who according to sources had smelt something nasty. Furious over the attitude of the two officials, Rashid asked the manager and captain to swear on Holy Quran that nobody had accepted money from the book-makers or some other quarters. Skipper salim Malik instead went out for the toss and after handing over the initial advantage of batting first to the opponents, returned to the dressing room and then swore on the Quran with other players.

But according to the sources those opposing Malik and Intikhab over the issue alleged the captain had already done the damage by opting to field first. Upset over the behavior of his seniors, Rashid Latif made it clear he would not play in any further match and will instead prefer to return home. While team had already become a disgruntled unit even before the start of the match, the journalists and commentators in the media box were flocking around their Pakistani counterparts and were hurling questions at them about Malik's decision in total disbelief.

South African captain Hansie also admitted in Friday's newspapers that he was quite relieved to hear Salim Malik's decision. "It was exactly what we had wanted. We were worried over the prospects of losing the toss but salim Malik made up for us and we gladly accepted the opportunity," he said. It was mind-baffling to see the way the Pakistanis first bowled and then batted in a match they were supposed to win at every cost in order to keep their chances alive. The world champions first bowled miserably and then played pathetic strokes during the run chase to make sure they lose the match with heavy margin. After umpire Cyrill Mitchley had given marching orders to Pakistani only in-form batsman Aamir Sohail in an extremely poor decision on only the third ball of the innings, the writing was always on the wall. Non of the other Pakistani batsman tried to improvise against the fearsome duo of Allan Donald and Fanie de Villiers who brilliantly exploited the favourable conditions. Ijaz Ahmed, saeed Anwar, Inzimam ul Haq and Salim Malik were all caught behind while playing terrible shots outside the off-stump. It seemed they were in a great hurry to return to the pavilion.

Skipper salim Malik Friday morning tried to explain his position but there was very little he could say in answer to certain burning questions. In fact there is no way Malik could justify why why put South Africa into bat after winning the toss. The captain was first wary to talk, "I think you should better go to manager Intikhab Alam." I will only speak after I leave the job in a month or so," he told that he was liable to answer because it was his decision and being the captain he was responsible for the results. "I opted to field first because I thought we don't posses a good bowling attack," he strangely said while referring to Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Aaqib Javed. "Since we have won most of our previous matches while batting second made me even more confident that we'll be able to do it again on Thursday," remarked Salim Malik.