Inzamam terms Pakistan's tour performance unsatisfactory by AFP

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Player:	Inzamam-ul-Haq
Event:	Pakistan in British Isles 2006

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DateLine: 12th September 2006

 

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq Tuesday termed his team's overall performance in England as "unsatisfactory", saying that the team badly needed to improve its fielding in one-day cricket.

 

"Our overall performance was unsatisfactory and we should have performed better than we did," Inzamam said on returning from the two-and-half month tour.

 

Pakistan lost their last one day international at Birmingham on Sunday, which left the five-match series all square at 2-2 after the first game at Cardiff was hit by rain.

 

Earlier Pakistan lost the four-match Test series 3-0, which included an unprecedented England win by forfeit following a ball-tampering row at The Oval last month.

 

The defeat in a Test series in England was Pakistan's first since 1982.

 

The only positive outcome from the tour was experience gained by the youngsters in Pakistan team, Inzamam said.

 

"Several youngsters toured England for the first time and the tour provided them with a wealth of experience and I hope they build on this experience in future," he said.

 

Inzamam singled out fielding as his team's main weakness.

 

"If we need to progress we must improve our fielding which plays a crucial part in one-day cricket," said Inzamam, who will appear before a code of conduct hearing on September 27 and 28 in London over the Oval incident.

 

Pakistan refused to take the field after umpires Darrell Hair of Australia and Billy Doctrove of the West Indies changed the ball and awarded five penalty runs to England over suspicions the ball had been tampered with by Pakistan.

 

Pakistan's protest led to the first forfeiture in Test cricket's 129-year history.

 

Inzamam insisted his team's action was for the sake of their country's pride.

 

"It was not a matter of win or lose, it was a matter of country's pride and I won't comment much on that," said Inzamam, who was chided by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for his comments on the issue last week.

 

Pakistan vice captain Younis Khan, and pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Naved-ul-Hasan stayed back in England for personal reasons.

 

Coach Bob Woolmer who was also disappointed with the tour, describing it as the toughest of his career.

 

"It was disappointing not to do as well as we hoped. Probably it was the toughest tour of my career for many reasons," Woolmer told AFP from Cape Town.

 

"Some positives did come out of the tour and they were Mohammad Asif, Umer Gul and Younis Khan - who all did well on the tour but overall it was a disappointing tour," said Woolmer, a former England batsman.

 

Pakistan's next international assignment is the eight-team ICC Champions Trophy in India next month.

(Article: Copyright © 2006 AFP)