Top 5 of Fifty years

To select only FIVE players from all the greats who have played for Pakistan in the past fifty years is tougher than any list of five that The Cricketer (a list of the five best cricketers of that year) has ever published. The list can only be made with strict adherence to a set of criteria that can give us the fairest results.
 The history of Pakistan cricket is the history of a group of talented young men who have carried the load of a nation's aspirations on their shoulders without being given the infrastructure and tools like the players in Australia, for example, are given, yet still somehow succeeding. Pakistan cricket, like most things in Pakistan, owes more to individuals than to a system, an institution or a way of doing things. One could say that cricket has thrived in Pakistan inspite of and not because of its cricketing infrastructure. Thus the high position that Pakistan cricket holds in the cricketing world is more a testament to the players that have played for Pakistan and their heroic contributions than to anything else. While that has to change for the future, it makes the relative importance of these five, even higher to Pakistan cricket.
 Pakistan cricket is a story of four eras. First: establishment. Learning to stand on our feet and taking the first few baby steps (1952-1969). Second: learning. Trying to find our way in the world of cricket and to realize the possibilities (1970-1975). Third: awakening. Knowing that we could win against the titans (1976-1981). Fourth: possibilities. Being competitive in world cricket and having the ability to play toe-to-toe with anyone (1982-present).
 The best FIVE have to fulfill the following criteria, in order, better than all the others do:
 Individual performances that are self-driven, self-igniting and above all selfless


Top-tier career records that are competitive with any in the World
Performances critical to the cause of Pakistan cricket
Effort above and beyond the call of duty


 Parenthetically, wins mean more than losses or draws and the appropriate contribution weights are applied. Also, bowlers, in general, rate more than batsmen do in winning test matches than drawing them.
 Having those four cardinals established we come to the matter of selecting the five players who fulfill our stated criteria. Thus, the FIVE CRICKETERS of the first 50 YEARS of Pakistan are (in order):


Imran Khan
Javed Miandad
Wasim Akram
Fazal Mahmood
Hanif Mohammad


 Let us go over each one of our selections and why they were selected:
 IMRAN KHAN (The Warrior):
 Imran is one of the automatic selections for any all-time-great Pakistan list, or for that matter for any all-time-list of all cricketers ever.
 His record speaks for itself. Of the greatest all-rounders that ever played the game he stands only with Garfield Sobers at the top of the game. This is not only a qualitative assessment but also a quantitative one. Of all the all-rounders that ever played test cricket (base-line being 2000 runs and 200 wickets) the list of people that have the highest average differentials in batting versus bowling:
Sobers 8032 runs @ 57.78 235 wickets @ 34.43 differential 23.35
Imran 3807 runs @ 37.69 362 wickets @ 22.81 differential 14.88
All the other notables who you thought were very good, pale in comparison
Botham 5200 runs @ 33.54 383 wickets @ 28.40 differential 5.14
Kapil 5248 runs @ 31.05 434 wickets @ 29.65 differential 1.45
Hadlee 3124 runs @ 27.16 431 wickets @ 22.29 differential 4.87
Benaud 2201 runs @ 24.45 248 wickets @ 27.03 differential (2.58)
 The next titan to join this all-time great list would be Wasim Akram, as soon as he crosses 2000 runs. He needs to improve his batting as far as consistency is concerned to come closer to Imran than to Hadlee.
It is clear that great all-rounders do more for their teams than anyone does but a Bradman, who scored double the runs of any great batsman (average of 50) per innings does. Thus, in total effectiveness for their teams, consistently over a long period of time, Imran ranks alongside only Bradman and Sobers as the most effective player for his/their team(s) in the history of test cricket. The second echelon would be Botham, Hadlee and Kapil along with other great individual bowlers and batsmen.
 Imran has perhaps been the only cricketer to top the Coopers and Lybrand's list of World cricket in batting and bowling at the same time. He shares with Botham the singular greatest feat in modern cricketing history : to score a 100 and take ten wickets in the same test match. Imran's strike rate could have been much higher if he believed in statistics and only played in test matches he could bowl in, when completely healthy. In general but especially in the later part of his test career Imran was perhaps the second most dependable batsman in the team to Javed Miandad (see World Cup 1992) and some of his greatest innings have come against the highest competition (West Indies or Australia) in the direst of circumstances.
 He was instrumental in the greatest of Pakistani victories: The West Indies tour of 1988, England 1987, India 1982 and 1987, World Cup 1992 amongst many, many more. There is so much more that we can rehash but at the key moments of Pakistan cricket we find Imran there with the most regularity of anyone. Indeed, the whole revival of Pakistan cricket as a force revolved around that shirt-tearing spell in Sydney in 1976. Vivian Richards still considers Imran the only bowler he ever faced who intimidated him.
 The most overlooked aspect of Imran's cricket in the World media is his leadership and never-say-die spirit. While other all-rounders, and Sobers is included in this, were mediocre captains, Imran was a great one. He lead from the front and wanted to win yet did not fear losing. He was a warrior. He was the fittest cricketer that ever played for Pakistan : through his sheer work ethic and will. A lot of junior and even senior team players have still to learn from that example.
His legacy to Pakistan cricket is: the mind-set to go for it all, to take individual responsibility, to work harder than the next guy, to be physically fit and to be able to bowl fast even in Pakistan thus establishing a tradition of Pakistani fast bowlers.
 JAVED MIANDAD (The Natural):
Javed Miandad was "the natural" and a force-of-nature, to boot. He was the most instinctive player that I have ever seen. From the very beginning, he just knew what to do at the right time. Tactically astute, Miandad was the inventor/improviser (along with Asif Iqbal) of the quick single as a weapon, remember Karachi 1978 against India in the run chase to win the test. He and Asif just ran India ragged. That innings just invented the basic technique for run chases anywhere by great batsmen. This same method then went on to the One-Day game that was starting to flourish at that time.
Miandad scored more runs at a better average than any Pakistani batsman ever has. He stands fourth amongst run scorers in Test history and his average of 52.47 was better than Gavaskar's or Richards'. His combined record of tests and One-Day-Internationals is equaled by only one other batsman of his era, Richards. Miandad is a colossus and is at the head of the list for Pakistan batting. Miandad was always there in some of the most famous run-chases by Pakistan : Lord's 1982, Karachi 1978, Sharjah innumerably, World Cup 1992.
Miandad was often the straw the stirred the drink. He could be the catalyst to get some of the opposition away from their games because of their concern with his antics. He could sometimes get into their heads and mess with them. This, I am sure was a source of great consternation for the opposing players and fans, though the Pakistan supporters were enamored of this.
The greatest attribute of his batting was that at the fall of two wickets you knew that there was someone in the middle now who will never ever give his wicket away. He would fight tooth and nail and get anyone that was playing with him totally juiced up to go to war. Like Imran, Miandad was always in the mix at the greatest moments in Pakistan cricket. Who can forget that fabulous last-ball-six against India in Sharjah?
WASIM AKRAM (The Lion):
Wasim Akram, the Lion, at number three on the list of all-time Pakistani greats may raise a few eyebrows but he might be as solid a selection as Imran or Miandad. Wasim Akram is the only cricketer in the history of cricket who has more than 300 wickets in both tests and One-Day Internationals. Akram has been a force and Pakistan cricket's post-Imran successes have more to do with his owling than any other player.
Wasim Akram has the ability to transform matches. For reference, see the '92 World Cup final in Melbourne, or recently see the World series final in Australia in 97 or versus Zimbabwe at both Shiekhupura (batting) and Faisalabad (bowling) in 1996. Akram may yet become, health permitting (if he plays three more years), the first member of the 400/400 club. A feat, if achieved, could propel him into a club of one as perhaps the greatest bowler that ever played the game. He is a giant even now. His ability to move the ball in the air, off the seam and with variance of pace is a treat to watch and is a nightmare for all batsmen. Most of his contemporaries in today's test cricket recognize him as the greatest bowler in the world. He is from the era of test AND One-Day Internationals and unlike all the bowlers of the past, today, you have to be good at both. He is better at it than anyone. A bowler that does not give runs and yet gets wickets under extreme pressure situations.
FAZAL MAHMOOD (The Trailblazer):
Fazal Mahmood might just be the most under-rated big match bowler ever. He started the tradition of excellence in pace bowling for Pakistan that was later continued by the likes of Mahmood Hussain, Khan Mohammad, Asif Masood, Salim Altaf, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Aaquib Javed, Mohammad Zahid et al : he was the trailblazer. He was the most important member of the teams of the 50's as far Pakistani wins are concerned. Fazal took 12 wickets in Pakistan's first victory in India (Lucknow 1952). 12 wickets in Pakistan's first victory in England (Oval 1954). 13 wickets in Pakistan's first win against Australia (Karachi 1956). 8 wickets in Pakistan's first victory in the West Indies (Port of Spain 1958). And 12 wickets in Pakistan's first victory against the West Indies in Pakistan (Dacca 1959). If Pakistan played more matches in that era Fazal would have many more tests and thus many more wickets than the 139 he ended up with.
Fazal makes the list not because of his record (Waqar's is better) but the sheer dint of his performance for Pakistan in an era that did not have enough compliments to his excellence in the Pakistan teams.
HANIF MOHAMMAD (The Rock):
Hanif was the first super-star of Pakistan cricket, yet, he behaved in an impeccable manner and never put his needs ahead of those of the nation. He performed to the best of his ability and exemplified courage under fire : he was the rock. Who could forget his 337 in the SECOND innings of the Barbados test match against the West Indies when Pakistan started the innings with a deficit of 505 runs? Pakistan ended up with 657-8 and the match was drawn. That perhaps was the greatest rear-guard innings in the annals of test history.
Hanif was the backbone of the Pakistan batting from 1952 to 1969. His 187 runs at Lord's in 1967 were particularly memorable. He had the highest first-class score of 499 BD (run out on the last ball) for over 30 years till Lara broke it. Hanif was the first Pakistani to score a century in each innings (against England at Dacca 1962). He still has the third highest total of hundreds for Pakistan in test matches. Hanif was also the bridge between the players who first played for Pakistan in 1952 to the players that took over Pakistan cricket and transformed it: Majid, Mushtaq, Asif, Sarfaraz and Zaheer. He was the captain in the debut test match of Majid and Asif against Australia in Karachi in 1964. He did not realize it then but that match laid the foundation of the Pakistan cricket team for years to come: with the addition of Majid and Asif to Mushtaq and Intikhab, Pakistan cricket had a nucleus that was to serve it for many glorious years.
OMISSIONS & FUTURE POSSIBILITIES:
 Waqar Younis along with Zaheer Abbas and Wasim Bari are the ones who have the strongest cases to be on this list. Waqar has as good a record as any bowler in test history with a strike rate of 39 (Imran and Akram by comparison are around 50). I would think that Waqar would make it in about a couple of years. He has to bowl a little bit better on tour against one of the top three i.e., Australia, South Africa or the West Indies and get a few more wickets. The gripe (especially by Australians) against him is that he has taken a vast number of his wickets against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. To me that is a fallacious argument and I expect Waqar to shatter that myth against Australia in our next series against them. Remember that he was unfit on both his test tours to Australia and they have not seen the best of Waqar. I am absolutely certain that given good health Waqar would be the second bowler in history to have 300 wickets each in tests and One-Day Internationals.
Zaheer is not left out for his record, which is fantastic. Zaheer probably was the best all-around batsman of our-time; with his 47+ average in One Day Internationals, his 100+ centuries in first class cricket, his eight centuries in each innings, his four double centuries in each innings, his ODI strike rate of 90+ WITHOUT SLOGGING, his Test average of 44.8. Not even considering the beautiful flow and rhythm of his batting with that high back lift that Lara reminds me of. The problem is, he should have done more for Pakistan cricket to dislodge Hanif from this list. He should have been more reliable and more of a sure thing than he was as far as crucial second innings scores is concerned in key test matches abroad. Especially, when the team needed him to score because others around him had failed. Zaheer definitely stands way above Hanif in his World stature but not for his importance to Pakistan cricket.
 Bari is not on the list only because of his position. He surely is on of the top 5 Wicket keepers of all time. The issue is that he alone could not win or save more matches for Pakistan than the other five.
Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim do not have the overall records to qualify

Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar and Ijaz Ahmed, could all come into consideration in future years with more performances of substance for Pakistan cricket.
Majid Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad and Asif Iqbal were the players who laid the foundation for Pakistan cricket's ascendance yet do not make it because their impact was more of a combined nature and individually their records are just a hair shy.
I hope that we have more new names in the list of five for the 60 year-celebration, because to remove any of the five selected in this list is going to be a big task and would automatically assure a great future for Pakistan cricket.

(This article was originally published in the July 1997 edition of the Cricketer, Pakistan)