The day didn’t start too well for yours truly. The first breaking news was heart-breaking, indeed. Pakistan’s greatest opening batsman and legendary ‘stayer’ on the pitch Hanif Mohammad was no more.
Born from the parental alliance of Amir Bee & Ismail Sheikh, Hanif was the pillar around whom Pakistan cricket was built and then flourished at the highest level.
Three other Mohammads — Wazir, Mushtaq and Sadiq — wore Pakistan’s colours with gusto, as did Shoaib. Till very recently, a Mohammad from the famous Junagadh lineage was in the Pakistan team.
Of all the renowned ‘Little Masters’, Hanif was the most original! A master of the ‘dead bat’, he frustrated many bowlers of repute with his colossal powers of concentration and sheer application.
There weren’t many guides or coaches then. But, believe it or not, Bee was Hanif’s guiding spirit. And, she regretted the fact that her fifth son Raees never got to represent the country.
Honestly,I felt that Mushtaq was perhaps the best of the lot. But, even he thought that Hanif was the ultimate torch bearer of Pakistan cricket. I’m not left with much to counter that statement, am I?
Cricket apart, I had much in common with the Mohammad family. Music was one of them. On one of her visits to England, Lata Mangeshkar agreed to meet Mushtaq and his folks very spontaneously.
What an occasion it turned out to be. The Mohammad clan was simply overwhelmed, and none more than Hanif bhai and of course Bee.
Hanif was much before my time, but as Asians we’d take legitimate pride in the ‘staying powers’ of the Little Master. In 1990, when I was with the Indian team as their cricket manager, I had a meeting at Lord’s with Mahmood Hussain. The loud-mouthed fast bowler with a rustic West Punjab background told me something that is certainly not printable, before saying: “Hanif was immovable once he crossed twenty.”
A famous Hanif tale goes like this. During his record-breaking 499, he was run out going for the 500th run, and the guy who got him out quipped as only a Pakistani can do: “Huh. We haven’t allowed anybody to score 500 against us.”
There are many stories regarding Pakistan cricket. Most are unprintable. Yes, they are replete with humour that only Punjabis can understand and enjoy. There was a story that when Hanif toured India with Fazal Mahmood’s Pakistan, Ramakant Desai rattled him like none else. That is very difficult to acknowledge, considering that the latter scored a 160.
As all greats would gladly testify, Hanif inspired and indeed goaded many young Asians to believe in sound technique and strengths of temperament. RIP, Hanif bhai.