IndiaPost.com - Inzamam held responsible for World Cup fiasco

KARACHI: A three-member inquiry committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board has held former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq responsible for the team's World Cup debacle, which included a shock defeat to Ireland and an unceremonious first round exit.

The committee, headed by former Test player Ijaz Butt, was formed by the Board to find out the causes of the team's poor performances in the Caribbean. "There was poor leadership from Inzamam, who was an introvert and autocratic captain, especially after the Oval fiasco when his refusal to go on to the field was overlooked by the PCB Chairman," the committee said in its report.

"Inzamam failed to lead from the front and the chairman of the selection committee was also a weak and a pliant person. As a consequence, the team was chosen at the behest of Inzamam," it said. "There were also serious doubts over Inzamam's fitness to play one-day cricket over the past year," it said. Inzamam hits back Inzamam-ul Haq hit back at the probe committee saying he was being made the scapegoat.

The former captain said he was surprised at the way the three-member probe committee blamed him for everything that went wrong in the World Cup in its report. Inzamam also said that he respected all the members of the probe committee but the fact was none of them had any experience of leading the national team. "How they can comment on captaincy without having experienced it, is beyond me? I am no dictator.

Neither was I ever autocratic as a captain. I always took decisions after consulting the other senior players and team management," Inzamam told PTI. "The strange thing is that when the team was doing well under my captaincy no one said anything.

More strange is the part that former players have criticized me in the past for being too easy-going on the field and not showing more authority as captain. And the committee says I was a dictator," he said. Inzamam said he was the latest victim in Pakistan's blame game.

"The sad fact is that in Pakistan cricket, after every big defeat blame has to be laid on someone. This time it is me. But why do people forget how well the team did in so many matches. We had one bad tournament and I accept responsibility for that. But to brand me all these things has hurt me," he said.