March 21, 2007, the world saw the burly Inzamam-ul-Haq for the last time in the ODI arena. The poor captain of the Pakistan cricket team was under immense pressure due the dismal show by the team in 2007 world cup, but did he really deserve all the heat?

The defeat at the hands of Ireland was a shocker no doubt, but to me the loss to West Indies was the beginning of the end. Had Pakistan played to its potential the scenario could have been reverse. Was Inzi the only one responsible? The answer is a big “No”.

Looking back at the match against the West Indies where Pakistan had to chase 242 which was not that difficult a target but as expected the opening pair did not provide us with the base that was required, then Younis Khan, the vice-captain, failed to take responsibility and played an unnecessary shot and the burden fell upon the shoulders of the captain, Inzamam and the highest test runs getter in 2006, Muhammad Yousuf, both were playing steadily and the game was in Pakistan’s control until Muhammad Yousuf went crazy and threw his wicket away after getting settled at the crease with 37 runs, just to remind you all that it was not the first time Yousuf did so, he very seldom takes responsibly in crunch situations. Anyway with the departure of Yousuf, the one man, Inzamam was encircled by the pressure to achieve the target. The asking rate was creeping all the time and Inzi was left with no other option but to attack and he eventually got out in his effort. Therefore, to me blaming him only, is totally unjust.

In the second match, again the openers failed and the middle order had to face the new ball on a challenging surface. The stiffness of the task reflected in the final score of the Pakistan team. Even after the minimal target of 132, Pakistani fast bowlers I believe bowled well, but they obviously had a slim chance. The surface with a lot of grass was blamed for Pakistan’s defeat but the question arises that Why are we not capable of negotiating well with challenging surfaces? The answer is that we at home do not train our youngsters on such surfaces, therefore we should prepare different types of wickets at the domestic level to produce quality batsmen, because “Preparation of war is done in peace”.

In both the matches the openers let us down. Along with the players the selection committee should share the blame for not picking the set opening pair for the all important event. Prior to the world cup at least 20 different opening pairs were tried and the selectors ended up with a completely new pair in the World Cup. Imran Nazir, who had not played for years, was picked as an opener. Bringing him back during such a huge occasion so suddenly was unfair both to him and the team.

To throw some light upon the efforts of the selection committee it would be enough to say that Pakistan consecutively won the Under-19 world cups (2004 and 2006) and amazingly no one made it to the National Side from the squads that have won both the tournaments apart from Riaz Afridi who was the member of the U-19 team won in 2004, was awarded a test cap during the home series against Sri Lanka at Karachi in 2004. Interestingly, the captain of that winning squad Khalid Latif is still waiting for his turn despite being declared the 3rd best players of the world in the U-19 circuit after scoring 295 runs with a healthy average of 41 in 2004 World Cup. Khalid’s struggle did not stop there, in the recently concluded Patrons trophy, the Karachi-born right-handed opening batsman, Khalid Latif scored over 400 runs (2 Centuries), in Quaid-e-Azam trophy 559 runs (2 Centuries) and in ABN AMRO ODI competition 268 runs (2 centuries). I think its high time now to induct new blood into the Pakistan squad especially in the opening department and Khalid is just one example. The talent is there but the problem is that a talent has to be identified for which a dedicated and salaried selection committee is the need of the hour. Moreover, left-handed Asim Kamal has also been touring with the Pakistan squad and acting as a spectator only, why can’t he be tried in top order as he is technically more correct then those have been tried in the recent past.

Now coming back to the great Inzamam who had called it a day right after the tragic defeat against Ireland, Keeping in view the tremendous agony of losing the coach as well as the pain of getting out of the World Cup which surely hurt Inzi a great deal, his decision seemed truthful but it is still a debatable issue. Many believe that one should take retirement at his peak, but I disagree and would try to prove my point. Taking the case of Inzamam who has played 378 ODIs should stay at least for a year to give the morally devastated team a bit of support, moreover, with the amount of experience who could be better than Inzamam to guide a youngster, like Javed Miandad guided him. Miandad, who could have left after the 1992 world cup as he was at his peak then, but he stayed, many criticised him but I feel he was absolutely correct as his presence gave people like Inzamam the confidence and steadily Inzamam replaced Miandad. Therefore, Inzamam should take the leaf out of Miandad’s book.

Whatever happened in the West Indies, we should not forget the services of Inzamam who is undoubtedly the best batsmen produced by Pakistan along with Miandad. He often is compared with Sachin Tentulkar and Brian Lara but I think his test record suggests that he is far better then the two gentlemen when it comes to winning matches. Inzi scored 25 Test centuries and Pakistan has won 17 of the matches in which he has scored 100s. Sachin Tentulkar, who has scored 12 centuries in won matches out of his overall 35, and Brian Lara who scored only 8 hundreds out of a total of 32 in matches that his team won. Inzamam's average in won Test matches is over 80 which is second best only to Don Bradman. Isn’t it enough of an evidence of the ability of the great man?

At present with a flurry of resignations the Pakistan cricket is facing the most awful turmoil of its history. Things at the top are seemed settled now with Chairman PCB back in business and has constituted a committee to find out the reasons of Pakistan’s performance. In the past committees were formed after a bad show but the results have never been desirable, therefore this practice of forming a committee should be shunned. Even a lay man with a bit of knowledge understands the reason of Pakistan’s defeat; key players were missing, senior players did not take responsibility and a bit of bad luck as Inzamam said that the wicket in the Ireland match was sub-standard.

It’s time now for the big guns of the past to sit together and find a way out, they should together draft a policy to pull the national side out of a deep hole. They all are giving statements individually on TV channels and forwarding names for captain and vice-captain, which is indeed not helping the Pakistan cricket, whoever would be appointed captain and vice-captain, I am sure these stars of yesteryears would criticise it too. Therefore they should come up like India did after their team’s dismal performance in the World Cup. Instead of passing on comments in media former Indian captains sat together to iron out the issues confronting the Indian team.

Here in Pakistan many people are also of the view that a paid selection committee should be appointed. In fact, last year, Dr. Naseem Ashraf announced that Pakistan would have a paid selection committee immediately after the World Cup. The question is that will a bunch of three selectors be able to keep an eye on every domestic match? I think it is not humanly possible whether you are paid or not, therefore Paid or Unpaid is not the real issue, we have to change the strategy a little. Whoever is appointed as selector should be bound to submit a detailed report after a certain amount of time about upcoming players in the domestic circuit, he could personally go to the field if possible, or could take assistance from a video footage of a match for which a “selection team” rather than a “selection committee” would be required and I don’t see any harm in it. The local cricket organisations should be taken into confidence and bound to work under the selection committee to provide them the support in discovering talented players.

As mentioned above that one of the reason for Pakistan’s defeat was the difficult pitch against Ireland, therefore the standard of the domestic cricket should be uplifted by preparing different kinds of wickets to give the youngsters a better change to cope with the conditions abroad.

In the end I would like to pay tribute to late Bob Woolmer who served the Pakistan Cricket till his last breath. It is very sad to know that the man was murdered. Some media reported linked the killing with match-fixers, however the investigation is underway. Whatever the result would be, may Allah protect Pakistan from the aftermath of the murder?

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