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Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq believes his team had a good Test year in 2006 but the seasoned batsman is concerned over the Greenshirts’ performance in one-dayers with the World Cup just a few months away.

“We have ended this year with a 2-0 win over the West Indies in a Test series. I believe our Test performance was not bad in 2006 when we also beat India,” said Inzamam. “But I must say that our one-day form has not been good during the best part of this year and we will have to do something about it considering the fact that the World Cup is not very far away,” he added.

Pakistan, World Cup 1992 champions, fancy their chances in the 2007 World Cup to be held in the Caribbean islands during March-April though their ODI performance has been far from impressive.

They were thrashed 4-1 at home by India in a one-day series at the start of the year. Pakistan won a three-match One-day International (ODI) series in Sri Lanka 2-0 but were held 2-2 by England in September.

The lowest point for Pakistan in one-dayers came in this fall’s International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy in India where they bowed out in the league stages after humiliating defeats at the hands of New Zealand and South Africa.

Inzamam conceded that the team needs to improve its ODI form in the build-up to the World Cup saying that he is urging his players to work on their weaknesses and come out with a good showing in the coming ODI matches.

Pakistan are to play a five-match ODI series against the visiting West Indies starting with the opening match on December 5 in Rawalpindi. They will play five more one-dayers on a tour of South Africa before the World Cup.

Inzamam said that the matches would help Pakistan regain their ODI form before the all-important assignment in the West Indies. In spite of their average ODI performance, Pakistan are still placed at the fourth spot in the ICC ODI rankings behind World Cup champions Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

The captain said that he and his team would never forget The Oval Test fiasco which he termed was the lowest point of the year for Pakistan. “It is an old issue but we will never be able to forget it,” he said.

Australian umpire Darrell Hair punished Pakistan for alleged ball-tampering in The Oval Test in August, a move that ended with the match being forfeited by Pakistan and awarded to England. Pakistan were later cleared of ball-tampering after an ICC inquiry but Inzamam was banned for four matches for bringing the game into disrepute. The controversy, however, resulted in the Hair’s sacking from the Elite Panel of Umpires.

Inzamam found solace in the fact his team reigned supreme in three of the four Test series it played in 2006. In a year that saw Pakistan suffering a 0-3 hammering in England, Inzamam’s men beat India 1-0 at home, claimed a 1-0 away win against Sri Lanka and finally ended it with a 2-0 triumph against Brian Lara’s West Indies.

Pakistan won four Tests and lost three but Inzamam described it as a good performance. He said that in 2006 Pakistan saw one of their young players ñ Mohammad Asif ñ becoming a star with a series of impressive bowling performances. But he said that it was unfortunate that Asif got banned for a year after testing positive for an illegal, performance enhancing substance.

Asif played a major role in Pakistan’s Test series win in Sri Lanka and was nominated for the Emerging Player of the Year Award by the International Cricket Council (ICC). However, Inzamam pointed out that 2006 truly belonged to just one player ñ Mohammad Yousuf.

“Scoring 1788 runs with nine centuries in a year is no child’s play,” said Inzamam. “Yousuf has proved himself to be a great player and I am lucky to have him in my team,” he remarked.

Source:The News

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