Inzamam 'has lost the confidence of senior officials'

Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer discuss their next move © Getty Images

Inzamam-ul-Haq has lost the confidence of senior officials in the Pakistan Cricket Board as a result of the Oval ball-tampering row, according to former team manager Zaheer Abbas, who was removed from his post shortly after the Pakistan side returned home.

Speaking to the BBC, Abbas claimed that the decision not to resume play after tea on the fourth day of the final Test was Inzamam's alone and that ""Pakistan's management is not happy with Inzamam at the moment."

He continued: "I requested him to go into the field at The Oval, chairman Shaharyar Khan requested also, and a few members of the cricket team, but he refused. After having protested we should have gone into the field and started playing. But Inzamam said to me 'I don't want to go in the field; if the boys want to go in the field then they can'. We know the captain didn't listen to us at that point in time. Loads of people were there waiting for us to go and show our ability to them and see us playing."

He went on to say that Younis Khan, who resigned as stand-in captain on Thursday only to be reinstated following the dismissal of Shaharyar Khan as board chairman on Friday, was at odds with Shaharyar. "Once when Khan was in his room, Younis wanted to meet him," Zaheer explained. "He had to wait 15 minutes to go and talk to him. A few other things cropped up and all of a sudden he said: 'I don't want to become a puppet captain of the Pakistan team' - and that's why he resigned.