FORMER Pakistan captain Hanif Mohammad has died at the age of 81 after a long battle with lung cancer.
Dubbed the “Little Master” long before Sachin Tendulkar could lay claim to the tag, Hanif arguably had an even more significant impact on the popularity of cricket in his country.
He retains the record for the longest Test innings of all time – taking just over 16 hours to piece together a game-saving 337 against West Indies in Bridgetown in 1957 – which is also still the highest score by an Asian batsman outside the sub-continent.
He began at the top of the order in Pakistan’s first-ever Test in 1952, which none of his countrymen who have followed him to the crease in the 60 years since would claim to have bettered.
Hanif was born in India, before moving to Karachi with his family as a 13-year-old, and four years later was making his Test debut against the country of his birth.
Despite his tender years his guarded technique was relied upon to lay the foundations of Pakistan’s batting as they adapted to life in Test ranks.
It proved the foundations of something even more significant as he ushered Test cricket into the consciousness of Pakistan and the paved the way for its present-day imprint in the country’s culture.
related stories
His impact earned him the reputation as the father of Pakistani cricket, although it was a family affair – remarkably at least one of him or his four brothers were selected to play in Pakistan’s first 101 Tests.
Hanif retired after 17 years at the top, having played 55 Tests and scored 12 centuries.
He notched centuries away to every Test nation he played while he at one point held the highest first-class score of 499, when he was run out.
International Cricket Council chief executive David Richardson said: “It’s sad to hear of Hanif’s death and I’d like to extend my condolences and those of everyone here at the ICC to his family, which counts so many cricketers in its number.
“Hanif took batting to great heights and many batsmen drew inspiration from him.”
“His contribution to the game has been enormous and one can only imagine the kind of impact his batting had on others over the years.
“Hanif’s triple-century against the West Indies was a legendary innings and unsurprisingly he was one of the original inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.”
Pakistan’s current crop are facing England at the Oval in the fourth test, battling to save the series.
Leave a comment