ZR, platitudes can only get only one so far, and sometimes, its good to address a spade as a spade...
That Inzamam is tactically inept on the field, and is not a natural leader out there is no great secret. However, that does not nececssarily make him a bad captain, he is the best we have, and has many other attributes (calmness, stoicism, quiet authority, respect of all his peers, team-mates and opponents alike, etc). However, out on the field he is {a} too defensive/negative, {b} often too late to act, {c} is hardly ever proactive, {d} formulaic in his field placings, and {e} not a natural leader with his body language. What are Inzamam's great strenghts as a person, as a captain in the dressing room and as a batsman (his calmness, quiet authority and unruffled demeanour) are big weaknesses when leading his team in the field. As his men are being ripped apart, they look to the leader for inspiration, but none comes. Even Woolmer, normally a defender of Inzamam at all costs, publicly admitted on his website that Inzamam's body language and tactics on the field were well below par. The way to counter his tactical naivety is for the team think-tank, ie Woolmer et al, to send in timely and frequent messages. However, I question Woolmer's tactical acumen too, either {a} his input is ignored, in which case he should be more forceful, or {b} his input is not up to scratch. Further comments on this can be read in my earlier post (
here), which was written after Day 2 of the current Test, so is based on our bowling to Ponting and Martyn - any comments about Gilchrist are thus irrelevant.
It is not "unpatriotic" to point out these facts, in fact much better to know your weaknesses than to burrow one's head under the sand
Hence, I am not calling for Inzamam's dismissal as skipper, the alternatives are not much better, if at all, and he does have some strengths. However, he does have some shortcomings which should be addressed, and which he seems unwilling to address. Inzamam's reluctance to address these issues is my inferrence from numerous answer by Woolmer on his website, various balanced press articles (so that excludes the Dawn!) and Inzamam's own reaction to criticism.
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