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Thanks for the memories, Inzy

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Andrew Hughes looks back at the career of one of the most talented and charismatic batsmen to have played the game

Half way through the afternoon session of the Second Test at Lahore, Inzamam ul-Haq charged a delivery from Neil Harris, the South African left armer, missed it and was stumped for 3. For the final time there was a slump of the shoulders and that slow ambling retreat from the middle. This time though, he walked through a guard of honour formed by his teammates. Amid tears and camera flashes, Inzamam has played his last international.

He will be remembered above all for his batting. Apparently effortless in style, his savage cuts, ferocious pulls and clubbing drives were executed it appeared with a minimum of movement but always impeccable technique. He was a sharp and reliable slip catcher and his legendary poor running and half-hearted fielding simply endeared him to fans and neutrals alike.

Statistically, he was just short of the great Javed Miandad in terms of averages and runs scored, but finishing up as the second best Pakistani batsmen of all time is not a bad way to bow out. In the all time lists for Test and one day batsmen, he lies somewhere in the mid thirties and perhaps tenth or eleventh amongst his contemporaries, a certainty for a middle order place in an all-time Asian XI in both formats of the game.

He was not a great captain, with a ratio of wins to losses that was poor compared to his predecessors. Though there were shining moments, notably at Bangalore in 2005, there were also accusations of laziness and more recently, criticisms of his overt fusing of religion with the business of cricket. Then there was the ugly stand off at the Oval.

But context is everything. When he took over in 2003, Pakistan were still trying to rebuild amidst the ruins of the Imran era and Inzamam was their only world-class batsman. The history of cricket is littered with top players whose games have gone to pieces under the pressure of captaincy. But Inzamam coped with his dual role admirably. He was the rock, the dependable one, bearing without complaint the brunt of public and press criticism. His unflappable manner meant he was a perfect father figure for the younger generation of players and when they proved not up to the task, as they often did, it was Inzamam who would come in and repair the damage. Time and again, he rescued a fragile batting order, fought out a tenacious draw or steered home a faltering bid for victory. Of his twenty-five Test centuries, the majority were match winning ones.

He could have gone on for another 18 months but slipping quietly back into the ranks was never likely to be a realistic option. His authority as captain had not derived from the office itself, but from the esteem and respect his comrades had for him. His continued avuncular presence would have cast a bear-like shadow over the captaincy of his young replacement, Shoaib Malik.

Shoiab's initiation to Test captaincy has been tough. The current test series has been an attritional affair in which Pakistan have been playing catch up, largely due to his strategy of employing a spin-dominated attack with which the South Africans have coped with easily. He has also cut a defensive, reluctant figure at press conferences. And long-term, he has a tricky task. The rebuilding of the Pakistan team has been a work in progress for ten years and now, without Inzamam, the batting will rest entirely on the shoulders of Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf. Shoaib will also need to draw heavily on the optimism and enthusiasm of coach Geoff Lawson.

But short term, the upcoming one day series will give Shoaib an opportunity to show what he can do and he has already shown himself to be a proactive and effective leader in the shorter version of the game. This series will also allow the next generation of batsmen to start auditioning for Inzamam's batting spot, foremost amongst them, the nephew of Javed Miandad, Faisal Iqbal. I would take Pakistan to win a closely fought series and though the markets are not up yet, I will be backing them at 1.95 and above.

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