In the light of the upcoming India-Pakistan series, the latest Beyond the Boundary discusses the impact of Abdul Kardar on the establishment of Pakistan as a force in world cricket.

By Nasser Khan (November 21, 2012)

Occasionally you read something you read changes your perception. For me, one such occasion was when transcribing a Mushtaq Mohammed interview with PakPassion, in which he describes a meeting with the father of Pakistani cricket Abdul Kardar in the 1970s:

Kardar came and I remember he came in a cycle-rickshaw at 7 o'clock in the morning to persuade me to take the team on the field. I said, and we used to call him the skipper, I said “skipper, it's only a matter of $5, and it's well-spent. What are you doing? I feel embarrassed and ashamed that you have had to come in a rickshaw and meet me. Why are you doing this?” and he replied “you don't understand, to get even $1 from the Pakistani government, it's like taking blood out of a stone”.

To provide some context, Abdul Kardar was then the chairman at the Pakistan Cricket Board. However, almost two decades before the incident he was appointed the first Pakistani Test cricket captain leading the team in 23 matches and winning tests against every one of the Test nations, bringing immediate respectability to a country at its infancy, the success of which infects the national psyche to this day. More recent inclusions to the test arena perhaps show how difficult such an achievement is. 

The quote itself refers to the Pakistan players asking the PCB chairman for an additional $5 per week for laundry, to enable them to utilise laundry services and negate the need to wash their own cricket whites during tours. A stark contrast to the current world of cricket and in the context of the razzmatazz of a Pakistan-India series around the corner, a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by those present at the infancy at the Pakistani cricket. Picture the scene - a PCB chairman leaving his home at dawn on a cycle-rickshaw to discuss $5 expenses at a player's home. Upon these efforts was Pakistani cricket established. 

The result of those sacrifices- the establishment of Pakistan as a power in world cricket - may have been slowly eroded over the years, summed up best by Imran Khan “After Kardar's retirement, Pakistan cricket was thrown to the wolves, the cricket bureaucrats whose progeny still rule the game.” Yet the seed he planted as an administrator at the head of the PCB, with meagre resources which sees a $1 increase to the budget as a point of negotiation, continues to produce fruit. As the current administration utilise their burgeoning resources to recruit specialist coaches of every discipline and the administrative advisors for advisers, they should remember the responsibility they have for safeguarding the game and utilising the resources thoughtfully, not personal privilege on tours and self-preservation through payments to journalists. If you have to pay a journalist to write positively about your administration, then you’re probably surplus to requirements. 

Kardar, as a player alongside his talented colleagues Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Mushtaq Mohammed and Pakistan's first superstar paceman Fazal Mahmood, influenced generations of cricketers and continue to do so, as through their legacies did Imran Khan, Waqar and Miandad emerge. 

As we look forward to the Pakistan tour of India, albeit a tour bereft of Tests, the root of the rivalry perhaps is best condensed by Kardar’s career itself, in which he played cricket before the country of Pakistan even came into existence, representing India in their 1946 tour of England. Military and financial politics often threaten to overshadow the matches but the on-field history and the spectacle of matches carries the burden better than most other major sporting rivalries. 

The deep-rooted history is an ever-present, but as a testament to the stature of the fixture it would have been fitting to incorporate a test series into the tour, rather than a series of limited-overs matches organised to please the money-men. The legacy of such contests deserves more, but as the legends invited to visit India during the tour commencing at the end of December sit in the stands, the fathers of Pakistani cricket deserve a moment of ponderance. 

The full Mushtaq Mohammad interview can be found at: http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/sh...d.php?t=136864

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