Technicality rules Inzamam out of tournament
Inzamam-ul-Haq cannot take any part in the Champions Trophy 2006, even if Pakistan reached the final
Anand Vasu in Ahmedabad
08-Oct-2006
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Inzamam-ul-Haq cannot take any part in the Champions Trophy
even if Pakistan reached the final. Although he would have served out
the four-match ban that he was handed in late September, the Participating
Nations Agreement (PNA) clearly states that a player who is replaced in a squad
cannot be reinstated.
Every team that takes part in the Champions Trophy has signed the PNA, and
it comes as a bit of a surprise that Younis Khan, now leading Pakistan was
not aware of this clause, when he said, at a pre-tournament media session,
on arriving in India, "It will be really good if we win our first four
games in the Champions Trophy and then Inzy [Inzamam] comes back and I will be ready to stand down as captain. I will be really happy to see him lift the
trophy while I am standing behind him. He has been one of my heroes right
from the 1992 World Cup."
Clause 6.9 of the PNA deals with the issue of replacements, and it says quite
unequivocally that once a player is replaced he cannot be reinstated
later in the tournament. Inzamam was replaced by Faisal Iqbal after being
handed the ban by Ranjan Madugalle at a hearing in London in late
September. Inzamam was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute
after his team forfeited the Oval Test against England. The forfeiture
came after Darrell Hair docked the Pakistan team five runs for ball-
tampering and changed the ball that was being used at the time. Pakistan
stayed off the field in protest after a break, and the match was
forfeited, despite attempts to get it going. Inzamam was subsequently
cleared of the charge of ball tampering.
Younis Khan was then appointed captain in place of Inzamam,
refusing to take the job, saying he did not want to be "a dummy
captain". Mohammad Yousuf was given the job of leading the side, while Younis would continue as an ordinary member of the team. However, after Shaharyar Khan resigned as the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, and Mushtaq Ahmed sacked as assistant coach, Younis was persuaded to take the job back, and he agreed. Perhaps, in all this confusion, he was never
handed a copy of the PNA to read.
Anand Vasu is assistant editor of Cricinfo