Pakistan under Kardar met with instant success

by A.C. de Silva

CRICKET: Cricket in Pakistan is in a mess. After the attack on the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan, teams fear to go to Pakistan for tours, fearing that they would be at the butt end of unwanted attacks by terrorists.

But Pakistan was quite a different country in years gone by and the man who put the record straight right from the start is Abdul Hafeez Kardar who is regarded as the father figure of Pakistan cricket.

Kardar was the captain of Pakistan in their first Test match against India in Delhi in 1952 and was at the forefront of events from then until he resigned from the Pakistan Board in 1977 in protest against Government interference.

But it must be said of Kardar that he was a Test cricketer before Pakistan even existed: playing for India on the 1946 tour of England under the name Abdul Hafeez. After the tour he added the family name Kardar, stayed in England and went to Oxford to read PPE and also became a fearless cricketer. He was a left-handed batsman and his response to any bowler or situation was to dance down the track first ball and slam it back over the bowler's head. He was also a bowler - left-arm medium-paced, economical on a good pitch, devastatingly effective on a bad one.

Kardar had a couple of productive seasons while playing for Warwickshire, where an eventful day was when he married the club chairman's daughter, then returned to Pakistan to take on the captaincy.

He had learned his cricket well under Martin Donnelly and Tom Dollery and, as Test cricket's newcomers, Pakistan at once made their presence felt rather than anyone's sympathy.

In 23 matches as captain, Kardar led his team to victory over all the then Test-playing countries except South Africa, whom they never met.

After his playing days were over, he became the chairman of selectors, and President of Pakistan's Board of Control from 1972 to 1977. But some sad moment came as in all his positions of a authority, he was inclined to be dictatorial and quickly angered, especially by any hint of criticism. In some ways, his prickly brilliance has become characteristic of his country's cricket.

But Kardar was also a visionary. He ruthlessly modernised the organisation of the Pakistani game, and many of the themes he was advocating in the 1970s have become common currency among modern administrators: the need to do away with unwieldy committees, to break the post-imperial dominance of Lord's, and to expand the game in Asia.

He was an early advocate of neutral umpires. Little of this was well received by his colleagues on ICC at the time. In later years he removed himself from cricket and his last public role was as Pakistan's Ambassador to Switzerland.

Diplomacy may not have come easily to him. Imran Khan said: After Kardar's retirement, Pakistan cricket was thrown to the wolves.

Kardar died on April 21st, 1996, aged 71.