**Well done Inzi! **
Let me begin with a confession. When Inzamam-ul-Haq was made the skipper, I was sceptical: a great batsman, alright, near-perfect technically, but definitely not skipper-material. That takes more than just being a great batsman or even a bowler. Does Inzi have that extra-something, call it leadership or what you will? My answer was no.
I was wrong. And I am happy to be proved wrong. The innings he played on March 13 and the way he led the side clearly show Inzi has arrived. He has what it takes to lead a side. Consider.
He won the toss and put India to bat. Cricket pundits were stumped. Why would he do that on a batting wicket? (Aside: I am quite surprised that Sunil Gavaskar should also consider it a nervous decision.) Defeat can bring into question good decisions; in victory even bad decisions can pass muster. While this issue can be debated till the proverbial cows come home, it can be defended on the basis of two things. Pakistan nearly successfully chased a total of 350 runs, and but for wayward bowling and a missed catch, the decision had paid off with two early breakthroughs: both Sehwag and Tendulkar would have been back in the pavilion in the first three overs. If that did not happen because the team showed a lack of discipline, Inzi cannot be faulted for it.
Every good strategy needs a margin of error, the unforeseen. But no skipper at the level of international cricket can go into a contest giving his bowlers a margin of error of 10 wides and 20 no-balls, and still hope to win! Even so, Inzi nearly pulled it off. He couldn’t possibly have done better; no one could.
Calculating cost is a tricky business. In Pakistan, we aren’t very good at it; be it in the realm of governance and security or, as in this case, cricket. The bowlers’ indiscipline did not just cost us five extra overs — that was the direct cost — but many more runs for every extra ball we bowled and at least one chance that we missed. And if we look at it like this, with Sehwag and Tendulkar sent back in the early overs, the entire hue of the game would have changed. We certainly noticed the nerves both batsmen showed in the early overs before they were comforted by our bowlers who had decided to overstep and bowl everywhere except where they were supposed to.
It was a big match. Despite all the talk about good cricket, and just cricket, it was not just about cricket. That’s the good and the ugly about an India-Pakistan contest. So nerves had to show. Add to that the new ball and the pace, and you have good reasons to go haywire. This is where discipline comes in, passion tempered by good sense and intelligence. A good line and length is better than fiery, wayward bowling. On that morning, if Shoaib et al were bowling at me with the intention of hitting me, I would have huddled in front of the wickets, that being the safest place. All of us have heard the story about the prince who was practising archery and seeing whose expertise one of the courtiers chose to plant himself smack in front of the target.
Where do we go from here? One thing is clear: the Indian side is eminently beatable. There should be no doubt about it. Their weaknesses shone through even the smog of our own poor bowling performance. It could have been a whitewash; it can still be a wash for the next four outings. But for that to happen, the bowlers have to discipline themselves. Can they do it is what is going to make the final difference.
Discipline is about character. Should one look for a brilliant maverick or a dependable slogger? I’d settle for the latter. The maverick thinks consistency an asinine virtue; maybe, it is. But it is also the only way to build teams, to create synergy where the total exceeds the sum of individual parts. This business of letting some players drive in a different lane just because they are brilliant is what creates problems. If Shoaib Akhtar has a problem with the team script, he should be put out to pasture. We don’t just need pace; we need consistency and sense of purpose.
Ejaz Haider is News Editor of The Friday Times and Foreign Editor of Daily Times
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-3-2004_pg3_4