LONDON, Sept 27: Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, currently facing charges of ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute at The Oval Test against England last month, remains an enigmatic individual and, in sharp contrast to previous Pakistan captains, he is comfortable maintaining a low-profile.

"It's my nature," he says, in graceful Urdu. "I'm a quiet person."

Although his record as a captain and his skills as a batsman are well known, Inzamam is concerned that the Oval incident and its repercussions will harm the team's reputation after they had spent so long improving their public image over the last few years under his captaincy.

"It is obvious that these allegations will affect the team's image,” he said in an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday. "Over the past four years, there has been a big change in the Pakistan team. If you look at the team, its entire reputation has changed.

“In the past, before my captaincy, we used to be routinely accused of match-fixing and other scandals. Now, all the boys pray together, collectively, five times a day. There is greater unity in the team. And we are widely respected as a team with integrity."

How will the row affect Inzamam's immediate future is perhaps more pertinent, and a bad outcome at the two-day hearing could hasten his retirement at the age of 36.

But he wouldn’t say anything definite about his future in top-level cricket.

"I don't know how much longer I'll be playing cricket. I may very well like to play cricket for the rest of my life, but that's not going to happen," he says.

"I'm not going to say if I'll play up to the World Cup (March and April), or after the World Cup. It all depends on one's performance."

Unity is, indeed, a virtue and the current Pakistan side displays it abundantly. But despite that, stories abound that fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar finds the team atmosphere a little stifling and prefers to stay apart.

It has also been suggested that a soft drink advertisement currently going out in Pakistan — it features Shoaib contentedly in the company of a young blonde in a nightclub before hastening home on a motorcycle to meet the coach Bob Woolmer's tight curfew — has irked some of the team.

Inzamam takes a thoughtful pause, and reclines into the leather chair.

"It was Pepsi that asked him to do the advertisement in that particular way," he says, with faintly discernible disapproval.

"I think it was designed to simply attract people to the product. But that doesn't mean that people should think Shoaib is like this or like that. There is tremendous unity in the team despite the different personalities that exist."

Former captain, Rashid Latif, recently advanced the view that Inzamam should cease to play Tests and concentrate on One-day Internationals if he wishes to prolong his career. Inzy bristles.

"Well, before he said that, many used to say that I should stop playing one-dayers and concentrate on Test matches instead.

"Actually, the thing is that of the World Cup team that triumphed in 1992, I am the sole remaining player. All the rest have retired. I think maybe some of my colleagues want to see me spend time with them — off the pitch."

As a devoted family man, he says he likes to spend as much time as possible with his daughter and two sons.

"I've also been spending the past few years working on a project. It's the Mukthawar Amin Trust Hospital in my home town, Multan," he says.

"We are looking to have 350 beds eventually, but at the moment it's functioning with 70 beds and an eye clinic." —Agencies