Johannesburg: Text of the statement released by the Pakistan cricket team after being knocked out in the preliminary league of the World Cup on Tuesday:"We are ashamed, disappointed, sad and heartbroken after letting the nation down. We knew that we were carrying the hopes of millions of our fans and have failed to live up to expectations."We tried our level best, we trained extremely hard and did everything within our reach. But things didn't work the way we would have liked to and we have no excuses to offer."The expectations were there because we had world class cricketers. But unfortunately, none of us displayed the talent God has blessed us with."We know that tempers are high back home and rightly so because we have not played the cricket we were capable of."The anger of the fans is justified because they are the ones who made us the heroes and have every right to criticise us for our failures."In the end, we express our apologies and would like to share the grief with every single follower of the game."The Sun will rise again tomorrow and, 'Insha Allah', Pakistan will bounce back and cricket would continue to flourish."Copyright AFP 2001

Extras:
'Pak needs someone with half the passion of Tendulkar'
'India defeat will haunt me, I've to think where I stand'

Tags: cricket, johannesburg, statement, pakistan team, preliminary league, world cup, disappointed, sad, heartbroken, world class cricketers, displayed talent god, anger of the fans, apologies, game.