Thank You Bob, Thanks Inzi!

Michael Holding said at the end of the Pakistan-Zimbabwe game “All good things must come to an end”. It’s rather sad that a cricketer of Inzi’s stature and a human being of the caliber of Mr. Bob Woolmer had to leave under the circumstances that they did but then again life can be tragic like that sometimes.

Inzimam was arguably the best batsman that Pakistan cricket has ever produced. With the test average of almost 51 and ODI average of 40, he really doesn’t need any pundit or meaningless host of talk show-who himself probably wouldn’t get selected in the eleven of his mohala team- telling him where he should have batted in the lineup. Bob Woolmer was truly a visionary when it came to coaching cricket and his resume speaks for itself. This argument that Pakistan would be world champions if Inzi had batted one-down is devoid of logic. Steve Waugh won the world cup while batting at 5 sometimes even 6, leading from front doesn’t really mean that you go bat up the order, it means you perform well at the slot that you are batting at. Michael Hussey bats at 6, Shane Watson is going to open the innings for them, we are not suggesting that Shane is a better batsman are we? Brian Lara usually bats at the same position as Inzi does. I am not saying it’s not a good idea that inzi bat up the order, all’s I am saying is that the parallel between batting up the order and having nerves of steel is too far-fetched and it’s not a magic pill that would have cured the illness.

I have tremendous respect for Imran Khan as a human being as well as a cricketing brain. I think when he speaks; he exudes honesty, sincerity and clarity. These are rare commodities in Pakistan. His ideas about revamping Pakistan’s domestic structure are dead on and his cavalry and leadership helped Pakistan cricket reach heights that it never dreamt of. However I think we must not forget that the triumph in ’92 was a product of not only his “Bravery” and “Courage” but also because the Lord above was smiling, stars were aligned and everything (and there were a lot of ‘things’) that needed to go right, DID go right for Pakistan to move ahead in the 2nd stage of ’92 world cup. All that needed to go right for Pakistan this time around was a single by a Zimbabwean batsman on the last ball of their game against Ireland which would have meant victory for Zimbabwe rather than a draw and that would have nudged Pakistan in Super 8. I mean do we not remember that literally miracles that had nothing to do with Imran’s courage or Pakistan Team’s ability needed to happen if Pakistan was to move forward in ’92? We must not also forget that the same people that are demanding Inzi’s head for insisting on players that HE THOUGHT would help him win (like that’s some kind of a crime) are the same people who didn’t even take Miandad initially – (who played a major role in the triumph mind you)- for reasons that are not secret anymore and these are the same people that annihilated the careers of Asif Mujtaba and Qasim Omer amongst numerous others just because they hailed from the wrong side of the neighborhood. So let’s get off the high horse before we fall flat on our faces.

Ladies and gentlemen when you are at the mercy of other teams winning or loosing then no matter how you want to sugar-coat it, fact of the mater will remain that luck was part of that winning equation. Let’s not get out of control here. Yes, Pakistan should have moved to super 8 stage, yes they should have defeated Ireland with ease, and YES THEY MUST NOT LOOK LIKE MINNOWS as soon as there is a hint of green on the surface. But this debacle must and should not take away the immense service Inzimam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer have rendered to Pakistan cricket. What it should do instead is make PCB a body that is independent and democratic where the chairman need not be the best man at the Army Chief’s wedding.

What in the world does cricket has to do with the office of Presidency? Why do we do things in Pakistan that are not heard of anywhere else in the world and sound down right moronic? Does Mr. Musharaf really need any more on his plate? Is it Inzimam’s fault that our cricketing system hasn’t produced a SINGLE opener of substance since Saeed Anwar? This stupid insinuation that Inzimam’s religiosity some how is responsible for this mess, illustrates nothing but how extremely bigoted and prejudice both the “Mullahs” and “Enlightened” are. “Mullah’s” blame all “ill” on lack of beards and the “enlightened” blame it on the abundance of “it”. Bob Woolmer is on record saying that the team Praying togather had a positive influence. It’s too convenient for the "HATERS" to blame everything on Islam. Make a coherent argument rather than bunch of conspiracy theories. If your sicko Molvi Sahab molested you while you were young and you have acquired animosity for Islam because of that, then direct your anger towards that individual rather than the religion itself. Besides how come no one ever discusses the length of Harbhajan’s beard, is it maybe because after 9/11 all kind of absurd prejudice is fair game ONLY when it comes to Islam & Muslims? Needless to say the argument itself is retarded.

I think some crucial errors were made in team selection and strategy but I don’t see a conspiracy here. I agree Sami should have played instead of Rana, but I suspect that his recent record against Gayle was the catalyst in selection rather than his beard. I think Woolmer and Inzi both realized that there are 2 West-Indian batsmen that can single handedly take the game away from Pakistan. One is Gayle and the other one is obvious. Lara doesn’t really have a weakness that you can go after, Gayle however DOES fall over in the initial stages of his innings and hence is always a candidate for LBW on an in-swinging delivery from a right hand bowler. Rana exploited that quite regularly not too long ago and they gambled with him because of that. Danish Kaneria should have played against Ireland because he’s a skillful artist and I think Inzi missed a trick there, but he’s still no Shane Warne lest we forget the Zimbabwe game. My contention is that batting failed them in both games not bowling. Yosuf played a horrendous shot against Ireland especially since he is the only batsman who has the technique in the entire team to actually handle seam bowling. I have no idea what Kamran Akaml and Azher Mehmood were trying to do, and knowing now what we know about the application of Rao Iftikhar he should have batted up the order but hindsight is always 20-20. I also don’t understand how is that you don’t take Yasir Hameed especially considering the “talent” we posses in the opening department. But I truly feel that both Inzi and Woolmer did their jobs sincerely without prejudice which is way more than what most of our ex-captains can truthfully claim.

Both of these gentlemen had tremendous respect in the teams they lead. We know that the guys respected Imran, now we all do, quite frankly its hard not to especially because he’s pretty much the only politician that projects this genuine and honest aura that is such a rarity in our society. In contrast inzi and bob both were LOVED like elders, everyone around them respected them but it was even more than that. Both of them will be thoroughly missed in the dressing room and we really don’t have to miss Inzi at all provided that we are daring. What do I mean by that? I believe Inzi has another year or so in him. We have a genuine concern in the opening department, what do we have to loose really? If he’s retiring from ODI’s than convince him to bat as an opener for Pakistan in ODI’S, his partner which I personally think need to be Yasir hameed can learn a great deal from him.

He’s a colossal in his own right and we need to send him away in a grand fashion on our own terms and especially in a capacity Pakistani ground. We must learn how to bid farewell to our sporting heroes. They are human beings and it’s unrealistic to expect that they can never falter, however if they have established themselves as Legends in their respective fields then it’s unfair to focus on their few failures. Aaqib Javed gives too much credit to himself, he never was a great bowler and mentioning his name in the same breath as inzi should be considered blasphemy. Aaqib’s insinuation that only if Pakistani players would visit night clubs like they use to than and ONLY than they can win the World Cup is as retarded as they come. Go to clubs, drink, sleep around have a ball. But it doesn’t make you a better cricketer just like namaz alone wouldn’t make you a world class sportsmen. Let’s keep things in perspective here, we expect better from our supposed "Enlightened".