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Amidst growing demands that Pakistan should appoint a new captain for next year’s World Cup in place of the aging Inzamam-ul-Haq, a national cricket official reiterated Pakistan Cricket Board’s “full faith” in the hulk from Multan.

“Inzamam remains our first choice captain for the World Cup, there shouldn’t be any doubt about that,” PCB’s Director of Board Operations Abbas Zaidi told this correspondent in an interview on Monday. While responding to a query whether the PCB is keeping its options open over the captaincy issue, Zaidi said that the Board is just pinning its hopes in the leadership qualities of Inzamam.

“The captain is a great cricketer and is leading the team by example,” said Zaidi. The Board official added that Inzamam is the prime reason behind the existing harmony in the Pakistan team dressing room. “Each and every national team player supports Inzamam as the captain. All of them respect him and look towards him for inspiration. This is the reason why there is complete harmony within the team,” he said.

He said that recently Pakistan’s vice-captain Younis Khan publicly announced that he and fellow team members fully back Inzamam and the master batsman is the best man to lead Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

While the PCB has complete faith in Inzamam, a few former Test cricketers have suggested Pakistan should go for a change at the top considering the demanding nature of the World Cup, a contest where the bulky 36-year-old might not be fit enough to captain the former champions in a successful manner.

With the World Cup just ten months away, the list of critics is only growing. Recently former Pakistan skipper Aamer Sohail also joined the bandwagon saying that Inzamam’s suspect fitness makes him a bad choice to spearhead Pakistan’s campaign in the Caribbean. He also added that Pakistan should replace him with somebody younger and fitter.

Zaidi refrained to comment on the issue of Inzamam’s fitness saying that it is up to the player to decide whether he can go on playing competitive cricket at the highest level. “Cricket is a very high-profile sport and an elite player will only remain in it if he is fit enough.”

He added that the PCB is not taking the criticism of former seriously over the captaincy issue saying that the Board is not there to cater anybody’s whims and fancies. “It is not important for us what those (former) players say because some of them don’t like anything we do. The important point for us is what the current members of the (national) team believe and I must say that they are all for Inzamam.”

Source:The News