Inzamam's conscience is clear as he prepares for judgment

Omar Waraich
The Guardian,
Wednesday September 27, 2006

Inzamam-ul-Haq arrives at his lawyers' offices an hour and a half late, with a harried demeanour. "He's never on time for anything," a member of his legal team mutters with exasperation.

The Pakistan captain has returned to London and will today face charges of ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute following the notorious fourth Test at The Oval last month. Inzamam has protested his innocence and is confident that he will be cleared of the ball-tampering charge. It is, none the less, likely that he will be banned and fined - an outcome that would throw his career into uncertainty.

Amid his fraught preparations for the hearings the Guardian was granted exclusive access to the Pakistan captain, but while he is keen to engage with questions about the team and his role as captain, events at The Oval remain a sensitive subject - this month the International Cricket Council's chief executive Malcolm Speed forbade the Pakistan team from commenting ahead of the hearing. To ensure that Inzamam does not queer the pitch with injudicious remarks Waseem Khokhar, a senior member of the legal team from the elite firm DLA Piper, is sat beside him, busily scribbling notes.

Is Inzamam sure that none of his players, in any way, did anything untoward with the ball? What did they speak about in the dressing room? Why did they return to the field so late? Will they play in the upcoming Champions Trophy if Darrell Hair officiates at any of their matches? All of these questions apparently run foul of the Speed edict, and are met with a rebuff.

What Inzamam is prepared to say is that things got to him. "Definitely, I did feel some pressure. But inside I resolved that I had done nothing wrong and was satisfied with my actions. That's what helped me."

Upon returning to Pakistan after the series, Inzamam was buoyed by the mass outpouring of support and sympathy. "By God's mercy, I received a lot of public support. It's a very good thing that the stand we took was appreciated by the Pakistani people. Respect is the main thing - it's the first thing that matters."

Is he worried the team's reputation, which he believes has been enhanced under his captaincy, will suffer because of the allegations? "Well," he says, "it is obvious that these allegations will affect the team's image." How they will affect Inzamam's immediate future is perhaps more pertinent, and a bad outcome at the two-day private hearing - which takes place at The Oval - could hasten his retirement at the age of 36.

"I don't know how much longer I'll be playing cricket. I may very well like to play cricket for the rest of my life, but that's not going to happen," he says. "I'm not going to say if I'll play up to the World Cup [March and April], or after the World Cup. It all depends on one's performance."

Inzamam has been muzzled since the ICC took exception to his columns in the Pakistan press on The Oval affair, but his predecessors as Pakistan captain have been more forthright.

Many have themselves been accused of ball-tampering in the past. Waqar Younis, the former fast bowler, claims to have seen the ball and discovered no traces of ball-tampering. Wasim Akram, another illustrious fast bowler, earlier this week envisaged Hair being cleared and Inzamam banned.

The most high-profile intervention, however, came from Imran Khan, who was responsible for Inzamam's initial inclusion in the Test team in 1991 and captained the 1992 World Cup-winning side that included Wasim, Waqar and Inzamam. "There's been a lot of hurt caused by Darrell Hair calling the team cheats," he told the Guardian.

"If they want to redeem their honour and pursue the ball-tampering issue, they should have gone to a court of law. That would make sure that never again can an umpire - unless he has clear evidence - declare a team guilty of cheating. I'm afraid that they're barking up the wrong tree by going to the ICC. The ICC gives everything to the umpire."

Adorned in blue jeans, a dark top, and a pair of black sunglasses on a cloudy day, Inzamam cuts a newer, slender figure. There will be no more jokes about pies and potatoes.

Although his record as a captain and his skills as a batsman are well known, he remains an enigmatic individual and, in sharp contrast to previous Pakistan captains, he is comfortable maintaining a low-profile. "It's my nature," he says, in graceful Urdu. "I'm a quiet person."

As a devoted family man, he says he likes to spend as much time as possible with his daughter and two sons. "I've also been spending the past few years working on a project. It's the Mukthawar Amin trust hospital in my home town, Multan," he says. "We are looking to have 350 beds eventually, but at the moment it's functioning with 70 beds and an eye clinic."

Other pursuits include an increasing commitment to religion. Inzamam and a majority of the Pakistan team are the most visible adherents of the Tablighi Jama'at, a south Asian Islamic movement related to the austere and uncompromising Deobandi sect. Its latest recruit is the batsman Mohammad Yousuf, formerly Yousuf Youhana, who converted from Christianity. Yousuf now regularly leads the team in prayer.

"Over the past four years, there has been a change in the Pakistan team," Inzamam says. "If you look at the team, its entire reputation has changed. In the past, before my captaincy, we used to be routinely accused of match-fixing and other scandals. Now, all the boys pray together, collectively, five times a day. There is greater unity in the team. And we are widely respected as a team with integrity."

Is that at the expense of Danish Kaneria, the young Hindu leg-spinner and sole non-Muslim on the team? "No, not at all," Inzy insists. "In Islam, you cannot force or compel someone to do anything. He practises his religion, and we respect him for it."

Stories abound that Shoaib Akhtar finds the team atmosphere a little stifling and prefers to stay apart. It has also been suggested that a Pepsi advert currently going out in Pakistan - it features Akhtar contentedly in the company of a young blonde in a nightclub before hastening home on a motorcycle, clasping a Pepsi, to meet the coach Bob Woolmer's tight curfew - has irked some of the team.

Inzamam takes a thoughtful pause, and reclines into the leather chair. "It was Pepsi that asked him to do the advert in that particular way," he says, with faintly discernible disapproval. "I think it was designed to simply attract people to the product. But that doesn't mean that people should think Shoaib is like this or like that. There is tremendous unity in the team despite the different personalities that exist."

Another former captain, Rashid Latif, recently advanced the view that Inzamam should cease to play Tests and concentrate on one-day internationals if he wishes to prolong his career. Inzy bristles. "Well, before he said that, many used to say that I should stop playing one-dayers and concentrate on Test matches instead.

"Actually, the thing is that of the World Cup team that triumphed in 1992, I am the sole remaining player. All the rest have retired. I think maybe some of my colleagues want to see me spend time with them - off the pitch."

Key players at the Oval hearing

Doug Cowie

ICC umpires and referees manager. Involved in email exchange with Hair about a possible $500,000 pay-off.

Billy Doctrove

West Indian umpire, partnered Darrell Hair at The Oval.

Mark Gay

Heads the Pakistan legal team. From DL Piper, London law firm.

Darrell Hair

Australian umpire at the centre of the dispute; unpopular with Asian bloc.

Peter Hartley

Third umpire at The Oval. Taciturn Yorkshireman, rising quickly through ranks.

Inzamam-ul-Haq