The Year the Captain was Born
KARDAR did not score too many runs or take too many wickets for Pakistan , but that is immaterial and irrelevant to any assessment of the man. He put Pakistan on the cricketing map of the world. Let us not forget though that he could not have done so without Mr. Justice Cornelius who put the house in order when there was chaos in all other fields.
In the few unofficial Test matches played before Kardar 's elevation to captaincy, Pakistan did unexpectedly well against the West Indies , outclassed Ceylon , as Sri Lanka was then known, but a crushing defeat at the hands of a Commonwealth side led to a public demonstration against the Pakistan captain Mian Muhammad Saeed at the Bagh -i-Jinnah in Lahore in 1949.
Public memory was as short in those days as it is today. Those who raised unprintable slogans against the redoubtable Mian had forgotten that only a season earlier, he had led Pakistan to a creditable draw against a West Indies side, which was led by Goddard , and included Walcott , Weekes , Stollmeyer , and Headley .
The Mian himself scored 101 in the second innings in a match in which Imtiaz Ahmad and Nazar Muhammad batted brilliantly. One defeat the next season and all this was forgotten by the Lahorites who played precisely the same act of abusive amnesia when Pakistan were beaten by India in the World Cup quarter final in Bangalore earlier this year.
But all this is beyond the scope of this piece. When all this was happening at home, Abdul Hafiz Kardar was in England , studying at, and playing cricket, for Oxford and Warwickshire . For the latter, he met only with modest success with the bat but took 48 wickets (22.81 apiece). For Oxford, Kardar was way down the batting averages but topped in bowling (43 wickets at just 13.76 apiece).
His best bowling was against Hampshire (12 for 136), 10 for 112 for Oxford against his own county, Warwickshire , 8 for 68 against Northampton , and 8 for 49 against Sussex . He did not exactly set the Thames on fire, but he did make the critics and the commentators sit up and take note.
Here is a brief account of his first match of the season for Oxford (June 8-9, 1949):
" . . . Examinations prevented A. H Kardar , the Indian Test bowler, from playing in the early games, but in his first match of the season for the university, his left-arm spin bowling soon caused a Sussex collapse and brought him a first innings analysis of 7 for 33 in 24 overs. . . Besides his success with the ball, Kardar batted well, he and Van Ryneveld adding 92 for the fifth wicket (Kardar's share was 60)"- Wisden , 1959.
From the book again:
F. J. Fowler: "Kardar using his left-arm spinners cleverly, finished at the top of the bowling averages."
Country report on Warwickshire : "Kardar , the Oxford Blue, provided the left-arm spin so badly needed. He displayed real ability in pace and flight variation." Today, commentators marvel when a bowler varies his flight and spin as if the craft was invented in 1996.
M. F. K. Fraser , also writing in the same Wisden edition talks of Kardar 's "diverse bewilderment of spin and break." As he himself told me years after he had retired, Kardar owed much to Eric Hollies who was the leading spinner for Warwickshire and to his captain, H. E. Dollery, the first professional ever to lead the country.
Like Kardar , D. B. Carr, who led the MCC to Pakistan in 1950-51, was also an Oxford Blue. They played against Cambridge at Lord's in 1949 with Carr making 13 and 35, and Kardar 25 and 11. He also bowled a marathon spell in Cambridge University first innings (49-21-79-3).
In the Warwick -Oxford match scorecard, one entry reads:
"H. E. Dollery c Carr b Kardar 55" (Birmingham, June 20, 1949). He had dismissed his own county captain with help from the man who would soon be playing against him and losing a series, which would enable Pakistan to secure Test match status.
These are but five scenes recalled from the 1949 season during which the New Zealanders suffered the only defeat of the tour at the hands of Oxford University. Kardar took two wickets in the tourists' second innings but played no major role in the match.
Although he had started his cricketing career much earlier but it was in 1949 that Kardar the captain was born.
The rest of Kardar 's cricketing career is too well known to be recounted here. All facts and figures about him as the Pakistan captain have already appeared. I have talked of his Oxford and Warwickshire days because Kardar was more nostalgic about them than any other part of his career.
As I said at the beginning, Kardar cannot be assessed statistically. Pakistan were lucky to have him lead them into international cricket. He was the right man at the right moment. He was a shrewd tactician, and it is a marvel how he welded a bunch of talented but carefree amateurs into a match-winning side.
He could read a game as well as any one else. To give but one example here. In 1986, when Maninder Singh ran riots and nearly took the Bangalore Test match away from us, Kardar (I never called him 'skipper' like the others, but Kuptan or Sir) sent me a most valuable gift with a note, which read: "Congratulations. This is a small present in advance for you to celebrate victory."
I called him back, thanked him, but said the game was as good as lost. India had very few runs to chase and they had Gavaskar .
"Lahori Sahib, I have played some cricket in my time. It's true they have Gavaskar , but they are playing last. Gavaskar will play well but he will not win the game for India and I don't see how the others can get past Iqbal Qasim and Tausif Ahmad . And if Pakistan loses, I'll stand you a party."
How did I get to know Kardar ? Well, I began by being a hero-worshipped but after he retired, I never saw him until he won a Punjab Assembly seat on a PPP ticket in 1970. But there was no friendship. I was no more than a nodding acquaintance for him. When he became the chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan in 1972, the editor of the now sadly defunct weekly Viewpoint asked me to interview him, which I did at his offices at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore . I got to know him better when he started to visit Viewpoint offices to meet with Mr. I. A. Rehman and to pay his respect to the editor, Mr. Mazhar Ali Khan .
Friendship came slowly. The haughty man I had known in 1972 began to unwind himself. The scowl started to give way to a smile and the smile to restrained laughter. In a way, Kardar was not a representative Lahori ; because he was never boisterous and whenever he shared a secret with you, it was done discreetly. When he whispered, one instinctively knew what he was saying was not meant for publication.
Friday, April 26, 1996
