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Pakistan 'not
happy with Inzamam'
LONDON—Sacked team manager
Zaheer Abbas claims regular captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has lost the
confidence of officials in Pakistan cricket following the Oval debacle.
Abbas told BBC Radio Five Live that the refusal to play on the fourth
day of the Test was Inzamam's own choice.
He said: "Pakistan's management is not happy with Inzamam at the moment.
"I requested him to go into the field at The Oval, chairman Shaharyar
Khan requested also, and a few members of the cricket team, but he
refused."
Khan resigned from his post on Friday night, and the following day
Younis Khan was named Pakistan's captain for the ICC Champions Trophy
with Inzamam serving a four-match ban.
The International Cricket Council had served the suspension on him for
bringing the game into disrepute at The Oval after the on-field umpires
had alleged the ball had been tampered with.
But only last Thursday, Younis had said he refused to be a "dummy"
captain, and for two days the captincy passed to Mohamad Yousuf.
Abbas said Younis' had had a difficult relationship with Khan since the
England tour.
"Once when Mr Khan was in his room, Younis wanted to meet him. He had to
wait 15 minutes to go and talk to him.
Inzamam said to me 'I don't want to go in the field; if the boys want to
go in the field then they can' Zaheer Abbas "A few other things cropped
up and all of a sudden he said: 'I don't want to become a puppet captain
of the Pakistan team' - and that's why he resigned.
"The ICC Champions Trophy was upon us, an important tour, and he wanted
to set out the problems he was facing at that time.
"He felt that the chairman was not giving him enough time so decided to
resign."
On the separate issue of Inzamam's actions at The Oval on 20 August,
Abbas said: "After having protested we should have gone into the field
and started playing.
"But Inzamam said to me 'I don't want to go in the field; if the boys
want to go in the field then they can'.
"We know the captain didn't listen to us at that point in time. Loads of
people were there waiting for us to go and show our ability to them and
see us playing." —Agencies |