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Cow Corner: Why I love Inzi
Zainub Razvi
In many ways Inzamam-ul-Haq epitomizes everything I love about cricket itself. So languor apparently, yet so exciting. So truly spectacular at times and yet inherently so simple. Perhaps that's precisely why Inzi's been such a pillar of success and achievements; the intrinsic nature of the game compliments his innate personality almost perfectly. I can't for once imagine him being a sportsperson in another other capacity.
For starters, he never could have been that great player in any individual sport, so that more or less automatically rules him out of possible careers in tennis, badminton, squash, or even long jump or golf for that matter. Everything about Inzi suggests he's a team player: the large overbearing figure, the unkempt hair, the Hakuna Matata philosophy on which he seems to live on. Each of these traits, one could argue, suggests a preoccupation with greater purposes.
It suggests as much a simple lack of time to dwell on trivial matters like keeping his Body Mass Index in check or brushing his hair or getting pressurized in a tricky situation, as much as it indicates of a particular paterfamilias sort of figure, who has a calming influence on his fraternity and who will remain like that come what may (although the odd three minute session in front of a mirror with a comb in hand could do no harm).
Perhaps, also, individual sport would have been too self-centered for him. How could he have possibly survived a post match press conference without having to "thankzzz" every person in his back up staff, whatever the result of the match might have been, without referring to them as "boyzzz").
He couldn't have been a footballer either as that would require far too much running for Inzi's liking. That leaves us with rugby which you have to rule out because it's quite possibly too physical.
And a lot of the remaining sports like motor sports for instance you simply have to rule out because they don't have grandeur mid game breaks for food intake; in Inzi land, such things probably don't even qualify as proper sports. But then, on that basis alone, one could possibly have ruled out everything but cricket.
But if you're wondering, what exactly is my point then I shall proceed without further ado and get to it. You see, tomorrow, Inzi shall lead Pakistan away in Sri Lanka in the first test of a ridiculously small, two test match telefilm (you can't call it a series when it's this short). It will be Inzi's 108th test, the 20th as captain.
No special occasion as such, but given that, in recent times, I've felt a growing sense frustration at his relative absentmindedness and tactical scantiness when leading Pakistan, and that my patience has been thin on him, and that I've lashed out at every little mistake he's made and criticized him for it, often even suggesting it has cost Pakistan matches, I thought it was time that I kept aside my grave, unsympathetic, analytical observer of the game hat and returned to my naïve, Panglossian fan roots for a while and do a good, old fashioned "why I love Inzi" post.
Perhaps this will reverse recent an uncharacteristic loss of form (scores from Inzi's last 8 ODIs read 16, 8, 16, 49, 21, 24, 1, 12) and trigger the more familiar, "I so won't get out without making a important score" mood he had not that long ago (scores from his last 5 tests read 53, 72, 109, 100*, 97, 1, 119). Here's hoping.
Cow Corner: Why I love Inzi
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- » Published on March 23, 2006
- » Type: Opinion
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Author: Zainub Razvi
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Different Strokes
March 23, 2006
12:24 PM
Why I love Inzi: In many ways Inzamam ul Haque epitomizes everything I love about cricket it self. So languor apparently, yet so exciting, at times so truly spectacular yet inherently so simple. Perhaps that’s precisely why Inzi’s been such a pillar of success...
Different Strokes
March 23, 2006
12:49 PM
Why I love Inzi: In many ways Inzamam ul Haque epitomizes everything I love about cricket it self. So languor apparently, yet so exciting, at times so truly spectacular yet inherently so simple. Perhaps that’s precisely why Inzi’s been such a pillar of success...
temporal
URL
March 23, 2006
12:36 PM
zainub:
don't know the result of tomorrow's match but here is inzi's after match comment
"bismillah hir rahman nir rahim
my boyzz played well/badly
their boyzz played badly/well
next match is important
inshallah we will play
their girlzzz is good
my boyyzzz need to improve fielding
thankooooooo"
please make appropriate substitutions
worma
URL
March 23, 2006
01:07 PM
Judging by his reluctance trudge off the pitch/field when out, I think he would have excelled at Sumo Wrestling :-) Imagine...a sport where eating and putting on weight is part of pre-match practise.
Pratyush
URL
March 23, 2006
01:18 PM
Alooympics is the answer. Inzamam would bag every gold. The sport doesn't matter.
bevivek
URL
March 23, 2006
11:25 PM
Inzy at the crease, jaws champing bovinely, presents a pastoral scene. One expects to see a background of lazy green fields, winding stream and buzzing flies swatted away with a magisterial bat. The other players and the umpire look incongruous in this Pisarro setting. I love the fact that he seems to have all the time in the world to play the shot.
During the 2004 series I liked Inzy off the pitch too for his barbed humour. I remember that when asked why Saqlain was being dropped when he was their best spinner he replied, "That's what I thought too". Somehow in the recent series, a querulousness seemed to have crept in and there was a slightly whining air to his comments.
Zainub
URL
March 24, 2006
06:41 AM
Bevivek,
Very eloquent comment there. I know exactly what you mean! When Inzi's in full flow he makes every thing around him seem very inconsequential. And you're spot on also about how it seems he always has more time to play his shots, that's a hall mark of all great players. That extra time he gets is because he plays the ball very late, almost too late at times, and that's why he's regarded as a very good player of fast bowling (something you don't associate with a lot of our other players).
Inzi's understated sense of humor also has a legendary status. That 2004 series you mention, that was full of utter gems (another example was when he answered a question about Pakistan's glaring extras problem, we'd conceded something like 30 odd in the first game and only a single fewer in the next, with "at least we're improving")...it does seem like he's lost a bit of that touch, which is surprising, given you'd think it's far more easier to discover your funnier side when the team is doing well (as it is now) then when it is doing poorly (as it was then).
bevivek
URL
March 24, 2006
07:19 AM
Yes, I remember the tongue in cheek "we're improving" comment too.
I think the problem for Pakistan (similar ones exist for India), is that after Inzi, the next best technically equipped player appears to be Kamran Akmal. Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf and others are not convincing on seaming tracks against even moderate pace bowling (which is what India had in the first innings at Karachi).
Pratyush
URL
March 24, 2006
07:21 AM
Pakistan:
Defeated England in Pakistan
Defeated India in Pakistan
Did not make a hero out of Shaun Udal
Aamir
March 25, 2006
07:36 AM
After the 2nd ODI between Pak and SriLank when Pak made a mess of chasing the 130 odd runs, Inzamam said in his TV interview "We made chasing this score harder than chasing 434". I laughed
Chemosit
URL
March 27, 2006
07:05 PM
I love Inzi because he remians human whatever other people in sport are trying to do to convince us they are not. 'Inzamam Ul Duck' is one player that our household will all drop anything to watch, be it punishing bowlers in a Test, or getting run out in an ODI - my fave memory of him will be taking about 5 minutes out lying face down in the middle of the wicket completely stranded, out by a mile, and seemingly oblivious to the celebrating fielders. I don't think he was savouring the moment, but I did.
Cricket is a great sport in that it encourages the brilliant eccentrics. Inzi is todays ambassador for that, and we love him for it.
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