Waqar Hasan was probably the last survivor of that famous cricket team of Pakistan which beat England on its home ground at Oval London in 1954 and thus established its credentials as a test cricket playing country. What a pity that our media , both electronic and print, didn’t give due coverage to his death news on the occasion of his demise on 10 th Feb 2020. He was an elegant batsman who used to bat at number three position . He was a very stylish batsman.
Our cricket team that beat England in August 1954 comprised stalwarts like Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Fazal Mahmud, Mahmud Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmad, Khan Mohd, Shujauddin, Maqsood Ahmad, Zulfiqar, Alimuddin Hanif Mohammad and Wazir Mohd. Barring Wazir Mohammad, all other players have since joined the great majority.
Imtiaz Ahmad died a couple of months ago. He used to keep wickets but he had earned popularity because of his aggressive batting style. Fazal Mahmood was a leg cutter par excellence and the English batsmen knew very little how to play his leg cutters. He was instrumental in Pakistan’s victory in the Oval test as he took 12 wickets in all in that match. Hanif Mohd and Alimuddin used to open Pakistan’s innings . Kardar , Zulfiqar and Shujauddin looked after the spin bowling.
The Oval test is important in the history of Pakistan’s cricket in the sense that it heralded the arrival of Pakistan ‘s cricket team in the international cricket . In those days only test cricket was played and names of the ODIs and Twenty20s were simply unheard of . It, is, therefore, important that the TV channels should make a special documentary on the Oval test and telecast it in the month of August every year as it was in this month back in 1954 when we succeeded in getting test status in the world of cricket.
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