Inzi attracting negative publicity

KINGSTON, Jamaica: The World Cup has just got underway but the Pakistan team is already attracting plenty of negative publicity. The team’s captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, however, says he is not really bothered.“It doesn’t surprise me much,” Inzamam told reporters on Friday afternoon here at the Sabina Park following a practice session. “I would have been surprised had there been no negative reports about my team,” the veteran batsman added satirically. In recent days, there have been reports of a serious rift between Inzamam and some of the team officials. There have also been rumours that some of the players, too, were not getting along with each other. Inzamam rubbished all such reports as baseless, asking the media to ‘leave his team alone’.“I’ve been playing for 17 years and am used to such criticism which comes up each time we lose,” he said. “But I would still say that the media should stop speculating and leave my team alone.” Inzamam spoke on several issues ahead of the match against Ireland. He was impressed at the way Ireland played in their thrilling tie against Zimbabwe pointing out that ‘there is no team in the World Cup that could be taken lightly’. “Ireland have proved that they are no push-overs,” said Inzamam. The skipper said that his team has regrouped after losing the opening match to the West Indies and is now looking forward to winning its next two games against Ireland and Zimbabwe. He praised his medium pacers especially Umar Gul for helping his bowling attack in the absence of top strike bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif. “Umar Gul has proved to be our best pacer,” he said.