We will miss you Inzamam-ul-Haq!

By Syed Ahsan Ali

It seems as if all good things in Pakistan cricket come to an abrupt halt with mind-boggling false shots. Whether it was Misbah-ul-haq’s nudge over fine-leg in pursuit of last five runs against India or like today where Inzamam-ul-Haq ‘s career came to an end.

Pakistan’s finest batting talent bade farewell to the game at the Gaddafi Stadium today missing out on Javed Miandad ’s record of Pakistan’s leading run-getter by just 3 runs. Inzamam achieved a wide range of fame in his 17 year-long-career. It included success, allegations, honor of captaincy, pride of spearheading Pakistan’s batting line-up, victory of 1992 World Cup, despondency of 2003 and 2007 World Cup fiasco, death of intimate friend Bob Woolmer and exceptional reception from Pakistan Cricket Board on retirement which must have been seen by many former cricketers as an enviable spectacle.

He left us all cricket lovers with memories of a batting talent which comes once in a lifetime. His dominance against fast bowlers, his serenity in pressure-cooker situations against all odds, his ability of pacing up his innings in limited over cricket, his lazy but dazzling stroke-making will tease many. He will be missed in the future whenever Pakistan will be looking for a magical performance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Inzamam had quickly established himself at the very start of his career as the mainstay of Pakistan. Imran Khan still considers him the best player of fast bowling ever produced by Pakistan. An incident regarding his fearlessness against the ferocious fast bowling comes to my mind which Ramiz Raja told in an interview. In 1994-95 season, Pakistan was playing a side match and facing chin-music from a young and terrorizing rookie named Brad Williams. Williams tried to impress everybody with his blistering pace and bounced three batsmen out including Ramiz. This saw Inzamam coming out on the crease to face the raging pace and bounce. Willaims welcomed him with a bouncer which Inzamam avoided at the last moment. That made Willaims even bolder and he tried to bowl another bouncer which Inzamam hooked for a sixer. It hit Williams’s ego very harshly. He tried again and Inzi thrashed him for yet another sixer and then hit two more sixers consecutively without even giving impression of any difficulty. Williams came close to gently-lumbering Inzi and said something abusive which Inzamam replied immediately in his eloquent English:

“Oh, You! what do you bowl? Off-Spinner”.

That spontaneous piece of wit made Williams exceedingly embarrassed because those remarks were enjoyed fully by his colleagues too.

Inzamam showed a phenomenal span of cricketing prowess whether it was ODIs or Test cricket. A Test run aggregate of 8830 runs, 25 hundreds (17 match-winning ones), an average of 49.60, and pride of representing Pakistan in 120 Tests can just be few glimpses of one scintillating career. Equally exhilarating show was in the shorter version of the game with 378 games, 11739 runs with 10 hundreds and 83, yes 83 fifties are the figures which could easily make many giants of modern day cricket look dwarfs.

This is not an over-statement that we will miss Inzamam. It is not just because he was a great cricketer but he was also a fine ambassador of Pakistan and cricket. We definitely need more characters like him in the team. Well done, big man! We are proud of you.