Former Pakistan Skipper Inzamam To Open A Batting Academy In LahorePanchkula: From that epic World Cup semi-final in New Zealand to a game against Chennai Superstars in the Indian Cricket League, even Inzamam-ul-Haq himself has forgotten how many matches he has won almost single-handedly for his team. Yet, when one talks of the best finishers in the game, it's the likes of Michael Bevan, Michael Hussey and Yuvraj Singh who are being discussed.
Inzamam doesn't mind at all. "They are better finishers than me," he said with a smile. But when pestered for more, he shared a secret: "I actually never look at the scoreboard. I just go on playing as I know to play, and if we win, it's God's grace," the simpleton in Inzy came out as he settled down at the hotel lobby to have a long chat with the reporters.
But he just got a little irritated when somebody told he had won more one-day matches for Pakistan than Sachin Tendulkar had done for India. "Let's clear this thing once and for all, Sachin is a far better batsman than me. And if somebody has played cricket, he will know that a No. 4 or 5 is always in a better position to finish matches than an opener."
And Inzy doesn't mince words when he says: "Yeh jo Australia se aap series jitke aye na, it's all because of Sachin. Had he not been there, it would never have been possible for India."
No wonder, the Multan magician is not in favour of the obsession about blooding in youngsters in the team in the place of performing seniors. "The value of experience is priceless. And if a player is performing till 42, he should be in the team," Inzy said.
Doesn't he think that too many older players affect the fielding standards of a team? "I know the importance of fielding, and I also know that barring a couple, how good the young Indian and Pakistani fielders are," the former skipper quipped.
The obvious query was then why he left the game, when there was nobody to replace him in the Pakistan team. "After the World Cup, I lost the hunger for playing cricket. Moreover, it was extremely difficult for me to come out of the trauma of Bob's (Woolmer) death," he went back to those nightmarish days after the 2007 World Cup.
Woolmer's death haunts Inzy even to this day. "Bob and me built the team brick by brick. We had so much expectation about the World Cup and then such a thing happened. And in those terrible days, nobody stood beside us," there was lump in the throat of the big man.
How does it feel when he sees the current state of Pakistan cricket?
"It feels sad. It's a better team than what I got in 2003, which didn't have more than one player (Mohammed Yousuf), who had played more than 30 Tests. This team needs somebody as a skipper who is an automatic choice both in Tests and ODIs," Inzy said, adding: "Malik is unable to get the respect from the boys which Yousuf or Younis (Khan) would have got."
He also feels that the PCB is handling the Shoaib Akhtar episode very poorly. "Shoaib is still a matchwinner. They should be judicious in the way they handle a volatile cricketer like Akhtar," he added. Inzy could have carried on for some more time, but there were other commitments to be fulfilled. As he was getting up, somebody threw in a query: "Do you ever think you were an underachiever?" The smile comes back. "I am happy with the 20,000 international runs that I got and don't repent the 3,000 that I didn't," he said, before informing that he will open a batting academy in Lahore in a couple of years.
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