Sportsmen bringing laurels are always special for their country but those among them are more special who had been a part of any sports’event that had established the identity of their country in the world of sports.
It was the fourth cricket test match between Pakistan and England in Oval ,London played in August 1954 that had established Pakistan’s credentials as a test playing country ,therefore,that test match would always remain special for us.In the same manner,the names of the players of our hockey team that won the gold medal for the first time in our history in the world Olympics in 1960 would always be written with gold letters.
How many cricket fans know the names of the players of our cricket team that beat England on its home ground in August 1954 after which the ICC gave us a berth among the cricket test playing nations.In those days the shorter versions of the game like the ODIs and Twenty20 weren’t introduced in the cricket world.Perhaps, only Waqar Hasan,Imtiaz Ahmad,Wazir Mohammad still survive .All of them are on the wrong side of 80.Hanif Mohammad, Alimuddin,Maqsood,Kardar,Fazal Mahmood ,Khan Mohammad,Mahmood Hussain,Shujauddin and Zukfikar have since joined the great majority.
All of them deserve a special TV documentary on their life and game.
The same goes for Pakistan’s hockey team which made us world champion in 1960.Led by skipper Hameedi it included stalwarts like Matiullah Naseer Bunda,Noor Alam, Habib Ali Kiddie ,Anwaar Ahmad Khan ,Ghulam Rasool,Atif Bashir and Gardner .A majority of them are dead today and even those who are alive find rare or no mention in the media, whereas ,all of them are our sports’heroes. Players like them are born once in a blue moon but our media and government have forgotten them .
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