In a few days’time our cricket team is going to England. This reminds one of the first visit of Pakistani cricket team to England back in 1954. Since then up till now our team has visited England on a number of times. Some of its tours were successful while some were not. The tour of 1954 stands out conspicuously from the rest of the visits for a variety of reasons. First, in 1954 Pakistan was struggling to find its feet in the international test cricket. Second, playing conditions in England were new to the entire team and third our team was inexperienced and our players had been billed as ‘babes of international cricket’ by the British media.
In 1954 England’s team was considered as the best team of the world. To beat them on their home ground in the Oval test was no mean achievement. By doing so Pakistan established its identity in international cricket. Fazal Mahmood took 12 wickets in the Oval test which was won by us. His leg cutters were unplayable. Abdul Hafeez Kardar was skipper of that team. Though as a player he was an average all-rounder but as a captain he was par excellence. Pakistan has yet to see the likes of him as a captain. Some of the notable players of that team were Hanif Mohammad who later on came to be known as the little master, Alimuddin, Waqar Hasan, Maqsood, Imtiaz Ahmad, Shujauddin, Khan Mohammad and Mahmood Hussain. Barring a couple of them who are all octogenarians now, the rest of them, alas, are no longer alive having joined their Maker long ago.
Owing to excellent performance of Fazal Mahmood in the Oval’s ground a room of its cricket pavilion has been named as Fazal Mahmood’s Hall in his memory. Imtiaz was the first wicket keeper of Pakistan cricket team. He was a very aggressive batsman also. Shahid Afridi can be described as his carbon copy in so far batting is concerned. As a wicket keeper Imtiaz kept his gloves well and he proved himself to be a very agile wicket keeper. Khan Mohammad and Mahmood Hussain used to open our bowling attack as pacemen.
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