Owais Mughal
As Inzamam-ul-Haq appears in 3rd One Day International between Pakistan and England, he becomes the most capped player in this form of cricket.
He is closely followed by Tendulkar (India) and Jayasuria (SriLanka) who may takeover him in near future. One just has to wait and see :). Here is the list of 10 most capped players in ODIs. Note that 9 out of 10 most capped players belong to South Asian teams. The list is current upto and including 3rd ODI between England and Pakistan played on Sept 5, 2006
1. Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistan): 365 matches
2. S.T Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka): 364
3. S.R Tendulkar (India): 363
4. Wasim Akram (Pakistan): 356
5. M Azharuddin (India): 334
6. S.R Waugh (Australia): 325
7. P.A De Silva (Sri Lanka): 308
8. R Dravid (India): 293
9. Salim Malik (Pakistan): 283
10. W.P.U.J.C Vaas (Sri Lanka): 281
And Here is the list of 10 most capped Pakistani players in ODIs. The list is current upto and including 3rd ODI between England and Pakistan played on Sept 5, 2006
1. Inzamam-ul-Haq: 365
2. Wasim Akram: 356
3. Salim Malik: 283
4. Waqar Younis: 262
5. Ijaz Ahmed: 250
6. Saeed Anwar: 247
7. Javed Miandad: 233
8. Shahid Afridi: 228
9. Mohammad Yousuf: 221
10.Abdul Razzaq: 215
ADDENDUM, March 18, 2007: Inzamam announces retirement from ODIs
March 17 and March 18, 2007 proved to be tumultous for Pakistani cricket. At first Pakistan lost to Ireland in a World Cup match which saw Pakistan unqualified for the next round. Next the coach of Pakistan cricket team since 2004, Bob Wolmer had a sad demise in his hotel room and then Inzamam-ul-Haq announced his retirement from the ODIs. The detailed news of Inzamam’s retirement is quoted by Adil Najam below in the comments section. As far as topic of the above post is concerned, it looks like Inzamam’s career will stop after playing 378 ODIs in total.
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Inzamam is truly a magnificent batsman. But he does tend to humour us from time to time for various reasons. I will never, ever forget his hit-wicket dismissal at Leeds earlier this season. I was even compelled to write a sarcastic entry on my blog regarding that. :p
Let me start an interesting discussion: what is your favourite Inzamam innings? To jog your memory, I can give a few examples:
1. his 1992 semifinal knock
2. his century against India while chasing 350 in the ODI
3. his match-winning century against Bangladesh with us 9 wickets down.
4. his rather weird dead-pan triple century against NZ in Lahore
5. any others you can think of?
” However, as great as that would be, I don’t think Inzamam is well-liked in India at all.”
“I think he is the most liked Pakistani criketer in India.”
There is no doubt that Inzamam is loved by most Pakistanis. However, as great as that would be, I don’t think Inzamam is well-liked at all. Everytime Inzamam does something, he is ridiculed all over the Indian media for being overweight, stupid, etc etc.
Talking of Bushra Ansari.. and Anwar Maqsood’s Show Time.. the next verse was way before the time it would become relevant.. javed miandad ne hay itna kamaya. kehtey hain ke sharma ko bhi do laakh milain ge.. tauseef bechare ko… :)
Thanks Owais. The scientist in me wants to zero out that factor and look at per match averages in that case. Do you have access to that info?
Unlike baseball, cricket is somehow missing counting how a batsman is of support to the other batsmen during an inning. We do not count how a batsman allows the other to excel by just standing his ground. Remember the Tauseef/Miandad story in the Australasia Cup? Miandad hit the sixer and got all the praise, and Tauseef? Well Bushra Ansari sang it well, “Is chakey key javed ko sau laakh milain gay…tauseef behcaarey ko dirham aath milangay”.