Pakistan Cricket Legends

[ghazi52]

Wicket-keepers who couldn’t keep their places!

Wicket-keepers who managed to represent Pakistan at the highest level but couldn’t keep their places for one reason or the other. Some were good batsmen but lacked keeping skills while some were born in the wrong era. Let’s take a look at five such players who could have had a bright future had they performed regularly rather than occasionally.

Taslim Arif (1980)
Appearances: 8 matches

(6 Tests, 2 ODIs)

Record: 9 Dismissals in Tests, 2 in ODIs

Taslim Arif had a glorious career with the bat; he scored 90 runs on his Test debut against India in 1979-80, and followed it with scores of 46 and 58 in the next two innings. It was his fifth innings of 210 not out against Australia that made him enter the record books as the wicket-keeper batsman with the highest score in Tests, a record he held for 20 years. With an average of nearly 63 after just 6 Tests in which he scored 501 runs, he was dumped because he was primarily in the team as a wicket-keeper who could bat, and Wasim Bari was a much superior glovesman. They played one Test together — Taslim’s debut Test. Taslim played his next five as the wicket-keeper, eventually losing out as a gloveman rather than as batsman.

Anil Dalpat (1984-85)
Appearances: 24 matches (9 Tests, 15 ODIs)

Record: 25 Dismissals in Tests, 15 in ODIs

From 1984 to 1986, Pakistan tried many wicket-keepers as Wasim Bari’s successor and Anil Dalpat was one of them. He was the first Hindu to represent Pakistan at the highest level and was initially dubbed a success as he featured in a few victories. However, as soon as his performance graph went down, he was replaced with Saleem Yousuf who went on to represent Pakistan for four more years with distinction, thus ending Dalpat’s career as an international cricketer. He blamed his former captain Imran Khan for destroying his career but didn’t mention the fact that the same captain stood for him when there were many others in line for the spot.

Atiq uz Zaman (2000)
Appearances: 4 matches

(1 Test, 3 ODIs)

Record: 5 Dismissals in Tests, 4 in ODIs

Atiq uz Zaman’s biggest misfortune was playing cricket in the same era as Moin Khan and Rashid Latif. That’s why he was unable to play more than four matches for Pakistan, as Moin and Rashid were available till 2004 when Kamran Akmal arrived. Behind the wickets, he was good enough but in front of the wicket he was not as good as his predecessors. Had he managed to score a few more runs on his Test debut, things would have been different as he was steering his side towards what would have been a memorable win.

Zulqarnain Haider (2010)
Appearances: 8 matches

(1 Test, 4 ODIs, 3 T20I)

Record: 2 Dismissals in Test, 2 in ODIs, 1 in T20I

Ever heard of a person who sabotages his career and then blames others for his decisions. That’s Zulqarnain Haider for you who had a successful career ahead of him as Pakistan’s sole wicket-keeper but left the team and went to the United Kingdom to seek asylum. He wasn’t successful in that but what he was successful at was scoring runs and winning matches, at least once in his five outings. When he was given preference over the bungling Kamran Akmal in England during the 2010 series, he scored 88 runs in his debut Test and performed better behind the wickets with an injured finger than a fully-fit Kamran Akmal would have done. He was rewarded with selection for the series against South Africa where, in the fourth match, he hit the winnings runs, only to disclose later that he and his family had received death threats after the victory.

Mohammad Salman (2011)
Appearances: 10 matches

(2 Tests, 7 ODIs, 1 T20I)

Record: 3 Dismissals in Tests, 10 in ODIs, 2 in T20I

And then there was Mohammad Salman, the youngster from Karachi who represented Pakistan in all 3 formats but couldn’t make it beyond his 10 appearances. He made his international debut in a match in which Kamran Akmal played as a specialist batsman (good idea!) and even impressed with his glove work behind the wickets. However, the experiment failed as Akmal brothers (Adnan, Kamran, and Umar) shared the wicket-keeping duties for the next few years until the emergence of Sarfraz Ahmed, who started the tradition of holding on to catches, instead of dropping them.

 

[ghazi52]

Back row left-right, Mudassar Nazar, Arshad Pervaiz, Haroon Rashid, Sarfraz Nawaz, Aemer Hamid, Iqbal Qasim, Naeem Ahmad,
Front row, left-right, Sadiq Mohammad, Wasim Raja, Wasim Bari, Talaat Ali, Javed Miandad

 

[ghazi52]

Sadiq Muhammad and Majid Khan, one of finest opening pairs in Pakistan cricket.

...........



Unique record, father, son, grandson, played test cricket, Dr.Jehangir Khan, Majid Jehangir and his son Bazaid khan, besides 3 real cousins to lead the same country in test cricket, Javed Burki, Majid and Imran Khan while Sadiq Muhammad has too the distinction that five brothers and a nephew (Shoaib Muhammad) remained in test cricket though 4 brothers, Wazir, Hanif, Mushtaque and Sadiq played test matches while the eldest brother, Raees was once 12th man and never played a test match, moreover Sadiq, Mushtaque and Hanif Mohammad played in a same test against New Zealand at Karachi 1969 to set another record of 3 brothers playing together though the debut of Sadiq saw the last test of elder brother, ex skipper Hanif Muhammad.

 

[ghazi52]

Mirza Idrees Baig (1911 – 30 July 1986)

He was a Pakistani cricket umpire. He stood in nine Test matches between 1955 and 1969.

Baig umpired one Ranji Trophy match in 1945–46 (a few weeks after playing in his last match) and 45 first-class matches in Pakistan between 1953–54 and 1974–75. He umpired nine Tests in Pakistan: four in Pakistan’s five-match series against India in 1954–55 (the first four Tests in Pakistan), all three Tests against New Zealand in 1955–56, the single Test against Australia in 1956–57, and the First Test against New Zealand in 1969–70. He also umpired all four matches Pakistan played against the MCC in 1955–56.

 

[ghazi52]

1981: Pakistan’s Javed Miandad clashed with Australia’s Dennis Lillee - Perth Cricket Test


Miandad played Lillee to s quare leg and completed an easy run, with a collision taking place in the center. According to Miandad, Lillee had tried to block him in the path. After a verbal exchange, Lillee went ahead and kicked Miandad on his pads. Miandad, started charging towards Lillee with his bat lifted high above the head, as if to hit him. The umpire's intervention prevented what could have turned out to be a real assault had Miandad gone ahead with his plans.

The blame for the incident was laid on Lillee by many experts. Former Australian captains like Bob Simpson and Ian Chappell condemned Lillee’s behavior.

 

[ghazi52]

1979 : Wills Man of the Match Award Ceremony

Waqar Hasan (test cricketer) with Taher Memon and Asif Iqbal in the background. Taher Memon was an Advertising and Corporate Communications Manager at the Pakistan Tobacco Company.

 

[ghazi52]

Hanif Mohammad's 16-hour Barbados marathon....

Hanif Mohammad's 337 was at the time the longest innings in first-class history.


1958
Hanif Mohammad batted for 970 minutes (that's over 16 hours, or nearly 11 football matches) to save Pakistan's first Test against West Indies in Barbados.

His 337 was at the time the second-highest score in Test history; it's now the eighth. It was also the longest innings in first-class history, until Rajeev Nayyar went 45 minutes better for Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy in 1999-2000. In Hanif's match, Pakistan had followed on, the small matter of 473 runs behind - they made 657 for 8 from a mere 319 overs.

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Munaf

Munaf played only four Tests for Pakistan, from the late 50s to the early 60s, but hovered around national team selection for a number of years. He toured, without playing a Test, with the Pakistan side on their famous first tour of the Caribbean in 1957-58, in which Gary Sobers made his then world-record 365 and Hanif Mohammad played one of the great rearguard innings of all time, the 337 at Bridgetown.

Munaf was born in Bombay (as it was known then) but settled in Karachi and it was there, as a strapping young fast bowler, that he first made his name in the famous Rubie Shield school tournament. At that time, he was good enough with the bat to have opened the batting with Hanif for Sind Madrassah. The late historian Khadim H Baloch wrote in his Encyclopaedia of Pakistan Cricket that Munaf delivered off a short run-up and had a slingy, round-arm action and some reports had him, at his peak, as one of the fastest bowlers in the country at the time.

But his career coincided with early riches in Pakistan's pace resources. Fazal Mahmood, Khan Mohammad and Mahmood Hussain were all starters for the national side ahead of him; in fact, his debut Test against Australia in 1959-60 only happened because Hussain was unavailable. He would go on to play only three more matches, all in Pakistan, with a best of 4 for 42 against England in Lahore in 1961-62.

Munaf's potential was never in doubt, though, as evidenced by two trips he made to England as part of the Pakistan Eaglets squad - which was essentially an A team back then. His career-best figures - 8-84 - came on an Eaglets tour in 1963, against Kent. England may have been a good place for his bowling and though he was picked for what turned out to be a disastrous tour in 1962, he had to withdraw with a leg injury.

Munaf was also part of Pakistan's squad to India on the 1960-61 tour, though once again he didn't play a single Test.

 

[ghazi52]

Cambridge University Cricket XI v Pakistan Touring Team 1962
Courtesy : MCC/LCG

 

[ghazi52]

Imtiaz Ahmad with Pakistani Cricket Team in Trinidad & Tobago in 1950's

Photo Courtesy : Zaigham Imtiaz

 

[ghazi52]

Javed Miandad celebrates after winning the match with a six off the last ball, Pakistan v India, Austral-Asia Cup final, Sharjah, 18 April, 1986

 

[ghazi52]

On this day in 1987, Imran Khan became the first Pakistani to take 300 wickets in Test cricket when he dismissed Englishman CJ Richards in the Leeds Test.

Pakistan captain Imran Khan preparing to bowl during the 3rd Test match between England and Pakistan at Headingley, Leeds, July 1987.


Photo by Patrick Eagar

 

[Green Arrow]

 

[ghazi52]

1988: "Young Cricketers of Pakistan" - Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Waqar Younas and Aqib Javed in Karachi.

 

[ghazi52]

Pakistan vs. India - 3rd Test played in January 1955 at the Bagh-e-Jinnah , Lahore. India Captain V.M.H. Mankad leads his team on to field.