Inzamam ul Haq's "divine mission"
The locker room is every sportsman’s sanctuary. It is the place where he prepares himself for the battle ahead; where he reminds himself of the importance of vanquishing the enemy and making his country proud. Most importantly this is the place where he
reminds himself that the sooner he fights the battle and wins it, the sooner he can return to his family. Therefore, a man is not to be messed with when he is in the locker room for it could potentially turn messy!
Unfortunately, the PCB forgot to give http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383 this speech before he was incorporated into the team. Therefore, they should not pretend to be shocked when in a couple of years he decided to use the cricket locker rooms to recruit players to his evangelical
cause. In his last few years on board, he not only preached but invited other like-minded individuals to use the platform of the locker room to convert the “infidel” cricketers to the path of truth and righteousness. He is not to be blamed: he was never warned.
He is therefore to be saluted for his brave attempt at trying to convert the “infidel” cricketers and then coming out unharmed.
Inzamam ul Haq’s religious inclinations did not add to his popularity. Many of the other players felt increasingly alienated from him and went so far as publicly condemning his unholy attempt to mix religion and cricket. Shoaib Akhtar for one was not above
exploiting the humor of the situation; he would call Inzamam in the middle of the night as a prank to remind him of his religious obligations during a very important test series against England. Other players including Abdul Razzaq and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 were also
psychologically scarred by Inzamam’s attempts at turning the locker room into a masjid. In retrospect, rather than turning the players towards religion, Inzamam’s preaching only led the players towards further “indecency”. Shoaib for instance continued to
pursue his late night partying with a religious fervor in spite of Inzamam’s exhortations to reorient him from women and wine to the divine. It is debatable whether this was for a desire of revenge or out of sheer frustration. Maybe the drug abuse issues now
being faced by the team also have their roots in Inzamam’s overt attempts at indoctrination!
Under his captainship, he deflected the team’s charges against him of lethargy with the cool charm that can only be exhibited by a man on a divine mission. Only time would tell how much damage has been inflicted by Inzamam upon the psyches of the players.
However it must be added that in contrast to other players, Inzamam definitely brings his own flavor to the team. Shoaib’s attempts at capturing some popularity for himself by fraternizing with the enemy, or rather the women of the enemy, fade into nothingness
in comparison.
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