da prosport bet： Inzamam-ul-Haq cannot take any part in the Champions Trophy 2006, even if Pakistan reached the final
da bwin： Anand Vasu in Ahmedabad08-Oct-2006
Inzamam-ul-Haq cannot take part in the Champions Trophy as he was dropped from the original squad © Getty Images
Inzamam-ul-Haq cannot take any part in the Champions Trophy even if Pakistan reached the final. Although he would have served outthe four-match ban that he was handed in late September, the ParticipatingNations Agreement (PNA) clearly states that a player who is replaced in a squadcannot be reinstated.Every team that takes part in the Champions Trophy has signed the PNA, andit comes as a bit of a surprise that Younis Khan, now leading Pakistan wasnot 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 fourgames 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 thetrophy while I am standing behind him. He has been one of my heroes rightfrom the 1992 World Cup.”Clause 6.9 of the PNA deals with the issue of replacements, and it says quiteunequivocally that once a player is replaced he cannot be reinstatedlater in the tournament. Inzamam was replaced by Faisal Iqbal after beinghanded the ban by Ranjan Madugalle at a hearing in London in lateSeptember. Inzamam was found guilty of bringing the game into disreputeafter his team forfeited the Oval Test against England. The forfeiturecame after Darrell Hair docked the Pakistan team five runs for ball-tampering and changed the ball that was being used at the time. Pakistanstayed off the field in protest after a break, and the match wasforfeited, despite attempts to get it going. Inzamam was subsequentlycleared 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 dummycaptain”. 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 neverhanded a copy of the PNA to read.
