Inzaman Ul Haq walked onto the beautiful Sabina Park for the last time as the captain of the Pakistan team and lost the toss. Zimbabwe put Pakistan in and rued the decision. The hit or miss Imran Nazir finally started hitting and his century powered Pakistan to 349 in 50 overs. Amid rain delays, Pakistan bowled out Zimbabwe for 99 runs and won handsomely.
This win, whether the team played for Bob Woolmer or Inzi or for their own pride, will bring the team a modicum of joy. And this win will both ameliorate and infuriate Pakistan cricket fans. They must be wondering why this particular Pakistan team could not have shown up earlier.
It would not be unfair to say that this match was all about Inzi. Inzi was playing his last ODI and probably his last international match. He strode the stage well these last 15 years and it has been a pleasure watching him play. Inzi was the first Pakistani player we liked. We have a lot of respect for Imran, Javed, Abbas, Akram, etc., but Inzi - we genuinely liked. We wanted him to do well but wanted Pakistan to lose. Things usually did not go as we wished; for whenever Inzi did well, Pakistan almost always won. Our dream came true one magical day when Inzi made an exquisite 122 in Karachi while chasing an Indian total of 349. Pakistan lost that match. To be honest, we were more thrilled with the innings we saw than the close victory.
Our first memory of Inzi goes back to 1992 world cup semi-final. We don't remember much of that innings but we do remember that somewhere in the middle of this innings, Tony Grieg realizes he is watching a great batsman bat. This realization dawns slowly on Tony, suddenly, he shouts: "Inzamam Ul Haq, you little beauty" and then he realizes his enthusiasm is a bit over the top and ends tamely with: "that's what Javed (Miandad) must be saying to him".
We never forgot this because it was incongruous to call Inzi "a little beauty". For Inzi was not beautiful and he definitely was not little. We will miss you, Inzi: Your numerous comedic run outs, your ugly slouching over the bat, your calm at the crease, your sublime timing of the cricket ball, your seemingly immovable frame in the field which seemed weightless when coming down the pitch to hit a cricket ball and your divine stroke play.
Inzaman Ul Haq, you little beauty. Er...That's what Javed must be saying to him.
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2 comments:
Like all geniuses, the core of Inzamam is simple and unadultarated by success or failure. What you saw, you got. Like the other genius Sachin, Inzy soared in a space above small-time scheming, petty machinations, match fixing, sledging and all that was ungentlemanly and not cricket. He had and preserved the rarest of rare qualities in modern day cricket - innocence.
Inzy is certainly one of the greatest cricketer we ever saw.
We are in agreement though I have semantic arguments against Inzi being "innocent".
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