Seventeen years after he made his debut, Inzamam-ul-Haq is back at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore for his swansong
Osman Samiuddin in Lahore07-Oct-2007
Inzamam-ul-Haq gets ready for his last Test match © AFP
Apart from looking light of paunch, not much about Inzamam-ul-Haq’s lasttouch-football training session appeared any different to the many thatpreceded it. He ambled around on the periphery, occasionally rousedhimself to sprint and throw passes, before stopping to amble again. Theothers accorded him the respect they always have by not really runningafter him that hard.Cool as you like he had a bat in the nets, but admitted the occasion gotto him. “Today when I went to do batting practice in the nets I got alittle bit emotional.”The last year has been unkind to Inzamam and it has brought him to this:resignation from the captaincy, ODI retirement and now from Tests, when hefeels he can still play on for a year. “It was a tough decision, but whenI looked at the youngsters in the dressing room, I thought they shouldn’tbe put under pressure and it was better to quit. Every player shouldrealise himself when it is the right time for him to leave.”There are lots of youngsters who have bright futures and I hope by thetime the next World Cup (2011) comes, the team will be in better shape. Theway we have performed in the World Twenty20, there are lots of encouragingsigns.”Inzamam praised the Pakistan board for affording him this send-off,dignified if a little forced, but it’s one very few ex-players have beenable to command. He wasn’t thinking ahead just yet, however. “My priorityis to perform well and help Pakistan draw the series.”His return puts Pakistan in an unusual situation. Shoaib Malik, thecaptain, rightly sees it as a bulking up of the middle-order, especiallywith the return also of Mohammad Yousuf. But it could leave themdistracted as well, as Graeme Smith has pointed out.”Both players are coming back after a while and it might affect Pakistan,”said Smith. “We’re making sure we concentrate on playing the style ofcricket we played in the first Test.”But Smith acknowledged that both were serious batsmen, no matter what thesituation or context. “We were prepared for Yousuf in the first Test andwe have played against Inzamam recently so our game-plan is pretty much inplace for these two batsmen. We are pretty comfortable but they areworld-class players. How they fit back in their setup is their challengeand how we bowl is our challenge.”Over 20,000 international runs, 35 hundreds and 17 years after his debut,against West Indies in 1991, Inzamam will play his last game at the venuewhere it all began: the Gaddafi Stadium. “I still remember that game. It feels asif it was only yesterday.” If it was, then some day it’s been.