Abdul Hafeez Kardar - Hero Worship
On November 8, the seemingly indomitable South Africans lifted the Golden Jubilee trophy by comfortably beating Sri Lanka at 'Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, the venue of the letter's most memorable triumph in cricket.
| Fazal Mahmood - A Player and a gentleman |
| Written by English NewsPaper/Dawn/Others | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Before 1947 Fazal used to play for Northern India as did Abdul Hafeez Kardar and Imtiaz Ahmad. Old-timers recall that Fazai had played aginst the Australian Services Eleven visiting their tour of India towards the end of World War ||. In 1946, the Rest of Indiaa had beaten the regular Indian team. "My role in the match on behalf of The Rest was acclaimed by newspaper Pratap with the heading "Fazal ki Jai," His performance the lethal, he says proudly, was acknowledged by no less than the Quaid-e-Azam. "He gave me a shabash, during one of his visits to Islamia College between October 46 and March'47. Based on his feats, Fazal was selected for India's 1947-48 tour of Australia. But by then the creation of Pakistan had been announced.
Before Pakistan cricket squad's advent abroad, to india in 1952, and to England in 1954, Pakistan played an international match with John Goddard's West Indies team in 1948. "We beat them, and they reciprocated by recommending that we be given Test status. We owe to the West Indies, who were followed by a visit by the Commonwealth Cricket Team and by the MCC 'A' team. The latter were touring India officially, I went to the then Chief Minister of Punjab Nawab of Mamdot, and asked him to invite the team to Pakistan. He said, 'How can we? We are not a Test country. We don't have a Board of Cricket "I told him that it was no problem. We sat down and constituted the Board, and he as the President of the Board, invited the MCC 'A' team. They were men in Amritsar. They came over and played an 'unofficial' Test in Lahore. We got them out for 120 odd runs in the first innings, I got six wickets for not very many runs. That result also helped our claim for the Test status. I remember going to Zahoor Sons and asking him for chairs and shamianas for the match, I remember, too, that we did not have regular staff, and I chipped in by setting the chairs for the audience."
Though Fazal piayed an important role in securing victories for the Pakistan team, it used to be said to his disparagement that he was only a matting-wicket bowler, that he had not been tested on the other pitch. That October victory was Pakistan's first Test win after it had been accorded Test status by the International Cricket Conference. His Skipper, who had himself represented Northern India in the Pentangular before independence, couldn't praise Fazal enough. "If there was one bowler who won the Test for this country on a perfect wicket, it is Fazal Mahmood," said Kardar, as he classed Fazal with Alec Bedser and Maurice Tare, and described his performance as superb. Lala Amarnath, the opposing Captain and an Outstanding cricketer of his day, whose two sons Mohinder and Surinder, have represented India too in Test cricket against Pakistan and other countries, while referring to Fazal's performance of 12 wickets for 94 runs, said he was "a clever bowler*. To Pakistan belongs a unique honour. No team had ever won a Test match in England against the home side in its inaugural tour before Pakistan did. Neither has any other team done it since. And the main fac¬tor was Fazal. Along with Khan Muhammad he tore through the England batting might of Len Mutton, Dennis Compton, Bill Edrich, Trevor Bailey and the like, to claim four wickets in the low-scoring rain-ruined first Test Match at Lords. The denigrating stance of some that he wgs a matting wicket bowler was laid to rest forever during this tour in 1954, when in the-final Test at The Oval, Fazal captured 6 for 46 and 6 for 53 and literally won the match for Pakistan single-handedly. Fazal recalls that, "this time, it was Alec Bedser himself, who said that he would like to be remembered as the 'Fazal Mahmood of England'. Fazal chalked up a legendary record of achievements with the ball. He was way ahead of his national contemporaries. Fazal's was a colourful personality, and coupled with his rare feats on the cricket field, he had acquired quite a sizable following among the youth in the country, looking for a hero to emulate. Many even tried to copy his action of bowling. He was also a stunningly handsome man and when he led the Pakistan Cricket team to India, a few people here fanta¬sised that he had caused the hearts of Indian film actresses, such as Vijayantamala, to flutter, merely because she and a few others had been photographed with him on the cricket ground at the Bombdy airport. "Such are the stuff of which we are made," said the more of his realistic down-to-earth, contemporaries. "Rubbish." says the Fazal of today, with a naughty echo of yesterday's memories in his voice, "I was captain of Islamia College's cricket team in 1944," he reminiscences, with a fond and faraway in his light blue eyes, once so bright and clear and now swathed around with wrinkles. "We were to become more than the nucleus of Pakistan cricket team later. We had Nazar Muhammad, Maqsood Ahmad, Khan Muhammad, Shujauddin, Imtiaz Ahmad, Zulfiqar Ahmad in the Islamia College cricket team and Kardar was soon to leave his old college and joined us. Islamia College was a symbol of Pakistan Movement. "Some of them perhaps think Government College was more of a symbol of the influence of the English-oriented Punjab. But as an institution, it was Islamia College remained in the forefront in the Punjab." Fazal says he was born in 1927 in Lahore at Railway Road. He has three brothers and an equal number of sisters. One brother is in business and one ended up being Vice Chancellor of the Engineering University in Lahore. His father, too, an educationist. Fazal holds a Master in Economics. 
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One has to agree that Fazal had decisive figures against almost all countries if one checks his best bowling figures. For example, against England it was 6 for 46, against Australia it was 7 for 80, against West Indies it was 6 for 34, against New zealand it was 3 for 34, and against India it was 7 for 42. Like Imran Khan's as skipper, who was to follow later, Fazal's record improved as time While he took a total of 139 wickets at an average of 24.70 in tests that he played, he took 41 wickets in the 10 Tests that he played at 19.14 runs apiece. But his personal performance improved with the assumption of the mantle of captaincy, he was unable to lead his team to as many successes as he would have liked. Fazal captained Pakistan against Australia in two, against West Indies in three, and against India in five Tests, winning only two against the West Indies, losing one each against Windies and Australia and drawing the five Tests against India. They were imbued more with a desire to celebrate its name than with any greed for personal glory or riches. Thus he is evidently concerned with the state of affairs not only with regard to cricket but in general as well. He says that cricket matters cannot be considered in isolation from the rest of the national environment. "Cricket is symptomatic of what is happening in the country. Everybody is, what we call in police jargon, 'in hot pursuit of maal, quick money. Our cricketers, too, are from amongst us. Why should they be expected to be any different? They are as honest, as noble, as the best, or the worst, amongst us," Referring to the result of the match between Pakistan and India in Bangalore, Fazal says that to look at the outcome of a particular match is hardly the answer. Player power has-been-allowed to dictate terms for-far too long, Ad-hocism has been resorted to because we don't like to plan. Personalities matter more than policies. Players of the past, distant or recent, many of whom have no axe-to grind, but are willing to give their time and energy, are never asked for their advice. Administrators are put-in Confused, as we -usually are, we assume that the,so-called 'rich administrative experience makes a man a Competent selector. Are we not some-thing? We don't like consensus, there¬fore we never consult. We iike our own single-personal decisions. "We have never bothered to face the truth to find out what is wrong-with-us. We have established commissions and tribunals to determine the turn that match took. But we have never been able to face the images in the mirrors held before us by these reports, So we have buried these'reports." To cite only one clear cut instance of our ostrich-like attitudes, I ask, "what happened to Justice Constantine's report about cricket matters in Pakistan? Or let me ask, how could we let cricket affairs in the country be taken over by people who remained absent or abroad for four or five years after Independence? How could those who did their utmost to get Test status during that same period be swept aside? What did we do about people who ignored all norms of decent behaviour and played for Kerry Packer? But cricket is a small issue. We don't know and perhaps the nation doesn't care what happened in 1971. 'As far as cricket is concerned, people like me have played their innings. It is not for personal gains that we make these noises, but because it causes us pain when we see the loss of glory that we know we can gain or retain but lose for no earthly reason. Our boys have talent. They can be compared to the best. Why is their performance not compatible with their promise? My request is merely this: let us try and find and place a system in the country where merit is the only yardstick by which selection is made, in all walks of life. It is not a tail Order. Only, a little bit of determination, and if you will allow me to say so a little bit of will is required."• By Sikandar Sarwar Published in Dawn (Dawn Review)
Full name Fazal Mahmood Born February 18, 1927, Lahore, Punjab Died May 30, 2005, Lahore (aged 78 years 101 days) Major teams Pakistan, Lahore, Northern India, Punjab Batting style Right-hand bat Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium Batting and fielding averages
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I called Fazal Mahmood from Karachi for an appointment. Fazal lives in Lahore. Famous for cricKet, Fazal has been in the police force. He retired 1987 as DIG. He readily agreed to interview on a Friday, with the rider that I was to have lunch at his Fazal street residence, off Aliama Iqbal Road.