Inzamam – a winner with a loosing attitude.

Leading from the front is a phrase we all hear time and again when we talk about leadership. Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s most prolific run getter in ODIs, had been facing the firing squad for quite some time before he finally decided to call it quits. Inzamam’s biggest criticism has been his failure to lead by example while captaining the Pakistani team.

You will hear people giving examples of how the other captains have batted so bravely for their country and in doing so have led from the front. Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Stephen Flemming, Greame Smith are few names that come to mind when we think about captains. Here is a break down of how the other captains have performed while leading their team in an ODI.

Games avg 100s 50s
120 36.50 5 18 - B.Lara
73 37.75 6 12 - S.Tendulkar
211 32.66 6 37 - S.Flemming
142 44.31 15 31 - R.Ponting
86 39.36 6 20 - G.Smith
54 29.79 0 10 - M.Vaughan
89 44.34 2 19 - I.Huq
65 42.43 2 22 - R.Dravid

It is truly amazing to see that Inzamam-ul-Haq’s average of 44.34 puts him at the top of the list. The only other person who bats at number 5 – when the pressure is high, Brian Lara, is way behind Inzamam.

So, why is Inzamam blamed for not being able to lead from the front? There are a couple of reasons why a batting genius like Inzamam has accrued so much criticism as a captain.

Firstly, if we dig deeper in his career we will see a tendency to fail at the highest level. His world cup performances have not been any where close to his potential. A competition like the world cup is where the greats triumph. Inzamam’s batting average of 44 is even higher than king Viv’s batting average (39) as captain of West Indies, but it is his failure in the finals and world cups that has kept his name from being taken in the same breath as Viv Richards’. Inzamam averages a shade under 24 in 35 world cup games and his average of 32 in all finals is below par. For comparison purposes, Richards’ average is 63 in 23 world cup games and 53 in the 24 finals he batted in.

Secondly, Inzi’s decision to demote him self in the batting order is perceived by most as an act of cowardice. The reason Inzamam is criticized so much in spite of his batting average as captain, is because of his mentality. He preferred to bat at number 5 with the tail enders/pinch hitters and took it upon him to give support to Afridi and Razzak from one end. It is this approach that led to most of the finger pointing, and ultimately his down fall. A person of Inzamam’s class should have batted at number 3 or 4 and in doing so faced the maximum number of balls.

Inzamam’s average at different positions as captain:

pos Ings Avg 100s 50s
4th 27 49.69 2 6
5th 43 45.24 0 13
6th 8 22.57 0 0


We can clearly see the improvement in the average when inzamam decided to go out in the middle earlier than his usual number 5. Not only did he score more runs, but batting at that position he was able to bring more stability to the ever so vulnerable Pakistan middle order. Inzamam scored two centuries as captain and both of them came when he batted at number 4.

The over-all stats will dis-prove that Inzamam did not lead by example. However, in Inzi’s case, the issue of leading from the front was quite a literal one. Had he batted a spot or two higher, not only would Pakistan have had a better win ratio, but PCB may not have been looking for another captain just yet.

Sami - a failure

I am a great admirer of Imran Khan. His achievements are un paralleled and he has done for the nation some extremely important things by bringing the World Cup to Pakistan in 1992 and then by building a cancer hospital for the under privileged.

A couple of days back I was seeing Imran give an interview and I must say that I hate to dis agree with him on two accounts. His support for Sami seems to escape my logic and his backing for Yunis khan is also extremely shocking. I have already written about Yunis twice in my previous postings, so I will give that subject a little rest and focus mainly on Sami. Mohammad Sami has had a miserable test career and some how he is still very much liked by the great Khan. Imran said that Sami reminds him of Malcolm Marshall. That comparison makes absolutely no sense at all. The later, a world class bowler who terrorized all the greats of his era and the former whose average (47) is close to Inzamam’s batting average are in reality a league apart. Mohammad Sami has pace and may even be able to skid the ball, but I think Inzamam got it all right when he said in a show aired on a Pakistani channel that “Sami does not have the art of taking wickets”. Has Pakistan bowling standards become this low that a person who does not know “where to bowl to a batsman” (another quote from Inzamam) gets repeatedly selected in the side? Malcolm Marshall was able to bag the Man of the series award six times in his career. Please remember that this was during the times of Sir Viv, Holding, Garner and others. Sami has been man of the match only once so far!

Mohammad Sami is a huge failure and in sticking with Sami, Pakistan has once again shown very little application in the area of team selection.

Sami’s Test Career:
Matches: 30
Avg : 47.87

Marshall:
Matches: 81
Avg : 20.94


Pakistan has suffered most by the doings of their own selectors, and Sami is a prime example of such a failure. Will PCB rectify this problem? Will Sami still be in the Pakistani side? Will we see Yunis tossing the coin in the next series? Will Pakistan play regular openers? Has PCB learnt it’s lesson? Like always, we can only pray.

Pakistan's new captain

Pakistan once again was shown the exit door of the world cup very early in the tournament. In fact this time, Pakistan had the honor of being the very first team to be eliminated from the world cup. As usual a dismal world cup performance will be followed by a “re vamp” of the entire team, the cricket board and the selection committee.

As a starter Inzamam has already retired from ODIs and has relinquished captaincy from the test side. This will leave a huge void in the batting order and the cricket chiefs of Pakistan will also have to look for a new captain. In my mind this is a decision that needs to be properly thought out. There seems to be huge lobby, mainly in the form of the great Imran Khan, to appoint Younis Khan as Pakistan’s next in charge. Younis has had a good career in Test cricket, but his ODI performance has been extremely ordinary. Younis Khan, some may argue, does not even merit a place in the ODI side. Furthermore, he has scored only 84 runs in the 6 outings he has had as captain. Moreover, in pressure situations Younis Khan has proved to be a complete disaster for Pakistan batting at number 3. Imran khan correctly points out that it is always easier to prevent a collapse rather than rescuing the team out of a collapse. That has been Inzamam’s biggest criticism through out his reign as captain, since he decided to demote him self in the batting order. Imran khan’s point is that the captain should play up front in the line up and lead the team by his example. In Inzamam’s case this was not happening. He was batting at number 5 and by the time he got to the crease Pakistan was usually already on the back foot. But, every body had hope in Inzamam. They knew that Inzi could rescue Pakistan out of the shackles that they had tangled themselves in to.

In Younis, Pakistan will have a captain who will go up the order and bat at number three, granted. But, the idea is not to bat at that position, in fact it is to lead by example. How can one expect a person who averages in the mid 20’s as 1 down against test playing nations in a career spanning 150+ games to lead from the front? What kind of example can you expect him to set? If he continues to play as he has in his career this far, we will soon realize that it is better to have a captain who bats at number 5 and tries to salvage an innings rather than a captain who bats at number three and can neither prevent a collapse nor try to come out of one.

Pakistan XI after the WC:
Yasir Hameed
Imran Nazir
Shoaib Malik (captain)
Mohammad Yousuf
Asim Kamal
Abdul Razzak
Shahid Afridi
Zulqarnain
Rao Iftikhar
Muhammad Asif
Shoaib Akhtar
Salman Butt (12th man).

Asim kamal, only if they want to look among the experienced players, other wise a new talent (Fawad Alam) could also be tested.

Younis Khan's Postion in the One Day Team for the World Cup

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006

I have compiled some interesting stats concerning the dreaded number 3 position and it's candidates. I think, it is very clear who the better choice is for our country. I know we may have different favorite players, but I surely hope that we have one favorite team, and a favorite out come of any game (Pakistan wins). With all due respect to the players and their supporters, I would like you all to look at these and decide for your self.Please tell me, as an ardent lover of Pakistani cricket, why Mr X should not replace Mr Yonis as 1 down?

Mr X:
overall 127 112 13 3243 143 118 115 32.75 5 19 8
3rd position 31 31 1 1216 143 118 95 40.53 2 9 1
Against the other (7) test playing nations : 32.98
In Wi (host for WC) : 3 2 0 64 51 13 - 32.00 0 1 0

Yunis khan:overall 143 138 18 3796 144 101 90 31.63 2 25 12
3rd position 38 38 3 917 101 73 71* 26.20 1 7 3
Against the other (7) test playing nations : 26.13
In Wi (host for WC) : 9 9 0 190 48 40 31 21.11 0 0 0

Stats spanning more than 100 games quite often reflect actual performances. People who look at history as lessons make better choices today. We all say Pakistani batting has problems. Good. To solve a problem one needs to realize there is a problem, identify what it is and then the solving part becomes just a matter of time. Has PCB identified the correct problem?

My Pakistan 11 (ODI):
Salman Butt
Yasir Hameed
Mr X
Yousuf
Inzamam
Afridi
Razzak
Kamran
Shoaib
Umar
Asif

And offcourse this will not happen as Pakistan will not replace Mr Yonis, cannot break the trend we own: ijaz/yonis/some joker, etc!

Ps: No points for guessing who Mr X is :)