Inzamam-ul-Haq's Nephew Imam Opens up About Accusations of Nepotism he Faced

These days charges of nepotism, accusations and counter-accusations have become a trend in Bollywood. But Imam-ul-Haq, Pakistan opener and nephew of Inzamam-ul-Haq has come out in the open and talked about his struggle with such accusations.

The youngster had a tremendous start to his career after he burst into the team in 2017 and smashed a ton against Sri Lanka on debut.

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He then followed that up with three tons against Zimbabwe, and had four tons in all of 9 matches.

Despite his average of 53.84 in ODIs, he has often been accused of nepotism.

Imam, while talking to Deep Dasgupta on ESPNCricinfo, talked about the whole incident regarding nepotism and how he cried for such allegations.

“When all of this started happening, I would have my meals all alone. It was my first tour and you know how it can get on the first tour. And whenever I would open my phone, there were people tagging me on social media posts or sending me stuff. I was very disheartened and couldn’t understand anything,” said Imam.

“I remember crying in the shower for hours that I haven’t even played yet [he played the third ODI of the series in Abu Dhabi]. It’s very easy for young players to get surrounded by self-doubt. The only thing running constantly in my mind was that I haven’t even played [for the national team] yet, what if I play and don’t perform well?

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"Then my career will be over. I wouldn’t step a foot out of my room, fearing people might trouble me outside because there is a large Pakistan community in Dubai,” he further said while explaining his struggles before his national breakthrough.

“So I didn’t play the first two matches of the series, Ahmed Shehzad played in them but he couldn’t perform [well]. In the team meeting after the second match, Mickey Arthur announced a 14-strong team for the next match, and I was included in that. And he said that you will be informed if you will be playing the night before [the match],” he added.