Inzamam-ul-Haq may not have kept it all together all the time; he couldn’t. But he was there through all of it, the highs, the lows, the thick, the thin: a reassurance
Osman Samiuddin12-Oct-2007
‘Against pace, on his day, he was the equal of any and the same reflexes made him probablythe best slip Pakistan has had’ © Getty Images
This is my Inzamam moment. At Mohali in 2005, Pakistan’s top order had imploded tragic-comicallyagainst an imposing deficit. Ten for 3 in the fifth and heavy defeatread the scoreboard when Inzamam walked out. If his mood has ever beendark at the crease, it was here.Lakshmipathy Balaji bowled the innings’ sixth over; Inzamam struck threeboundaries off the first three balls, none of them deserving their fate.The last I will remember till I remember nothing else: from the back, thecontours of his love handles visible, he gently hunched forward. As theleft heel landed, bat met ball, a forward push, no more, but mid-off neverhad a chance. Inzamam’s 86 that day was unusually hurried, and though men below him saved the Test, without Inzamam they had nothing.Others will remember other shots, other days: a World Cup semi-final six,the last-ball poke past point in Ahmedabad, the triple, a Karachi hundredagainst India, the Multan escape. But they all speak only one truth, thatwhen Pakistan absolutely needed him, he pulled through. Not always,because he was needed most days and he wasn’t one for the nine-to-fivelife. But much more often than not, he did, and that is precious.The environment, the personality, didn’t exist for him to become a glamlone ranger like Lara. Javed Miandad, Salim Malik, Mohammad Yousuf andYounis Khan all helped ease the burden, not always equally. Neither was Inzamamas driven, as ruthless as Tendulkar, Kallis or Ponting. A louder mediamight have helped, but that hunger would’ve done so more. Against pace, onhis day, he was the equal of any, and the same reflexes made him probablythe best slip Pakistan has had.A touch distasteful, maybe, to recall what he wasn’t – because what he waswas special enough – but in a time of such batting excess, it is importantto situate him. The first time his average reached 50 was in his 92ndTest. Only from his 100th, marked with a century and win, did he sustainit. Tragedy is, it fell below the milestone in his final Test. Alongside JavedMiandad he is the greatest Pakistani batsman and undoubtedly one of thebest, most compelling of modern batsmen Aamer Sohail, never one to call a spade by any other name, got to the coreof the batsman Inzamam: a great player, a rare blend of force and delicacy,yes, but could he have done even more? Ten hundreds in 378 ODIs saysmaybe, as do ordinary records against South Africa and Australia, the bestbowling attacks of his time.Two of his finest came against the best: an unbeaten fifty againstAustralia to chase Pakistan’s highest Test target, and a 92 the equal of any century at Port Elizabeth. Seventeen match-winning hundreds out of 25,among the best rates ever, also settles many debates. Batting so far downthe ODI order hurt his conversion-rate, but in a stiff chase, the heat on,Inzamam was the sharpest tack, capable of innings chiselled from ice.This is all to nitpick, of course, especially as Pakistan has fewer battingheroes than it should. Much more convenient to say that, alongside JavedMiandad, he is the greatest Pakistani batsman and undoubtedly one of thebest, most compelling of modern batsmen.Captaincy brought out the human in Inzamam, despite his reluctance for thepost. He was a caricature before: , overweight, loves a nap,(and his food even more), comedy runner, loses runs when he loses pounds, hitsfans. He probably didn’t mind it, because nobody minds goodwill, sympathyand endearment the world over.His dry, sharp wit, already known to team-mates, emerged when he had toaddress press conferences. He was also honest: asked to assess anunder-utilised bowler’s performance once, he replied, “If he had performedI could’ve told you.”The Bangalore win, on the last afternoon, to level the series, was themaking of Inzamam as leader. The allsorts attack he used then would todaybe good, honest Twenty20 material. Yet somehow he tricked Mohammad Sami,Arshad Khan, Shahid Afridi and Danish Kaneria into believing they coulddismiss the most frightening batsmen in the world. And they did. On thefield Inzamam was never more alert, more harassed, more proactive andunder greater strain.
A reassuring presence © Getty Images
That sparked a 15-month period in which Pakistan prospered under Inzamamand Bob Woolmer. Suddenly Pakistan calmed down, came together. With thebat Inzamam touched his peak; five hundreds in 11 Tests at over 80, asPakistan beat England, India and Sri Lanka.But subsequently decay set in. Inzamam’s calm became inertia, he driftedfrom Woolmer; religion, glue one year, became distraction the next.That most human of all maxims, that power corrupts, afflicted him. AsPakistan stumbled out of the World Cup in an ugly daze, Inzamam wasfamously accused of being a dictator, haughty and a (preacher).In truth, he did things this last year which he shouldn’t be rememberedby, notably a cranky, emotional, accusatory press conference. His lastdismissal was strange, but in a career that long, a blemish or two (anuneasy, indirect entanglement in match-fixing was another) is human.With Inzamam departs the last of 1992, when Pakistan cricket was adifferent world. Not that it was stable before, but that world has sincecome undone. Inzamam didn’t keep it all together; he couldn’t for no oneperson could, but he was there through all of it, the highs, the lows, thethick, the thin: a reassurance. In that alone, there is greatness.
