Oldest ODI Players

Pakistan’s cricket captain Misbah-ul-Haq Khan Niazi became the oldest player to appear in a One Day International cricket match for Pakistan. His age was 39 years 155 days in the first ODI against South Africa at Sharjah on 30 October 2013. 

Misbah-ul-Haq broke Younis Ahmed’s record who was four days younger when played his last ODI for Pakistan. Left-hand batsman Younis Ahmed was 39 years 151 days old when he opened batting for Pakistan against India on 20 March 1987 at Hyderabad Deccan’s Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium.

Misbah-ul-Haq also broke Imran Khan’s record of oldest ODI captain of Pakistan. Imran Khan was 39 years 121 days old on the victorious day of the World Cup final on 25 March 1992. He became the first and so far only captain to win World Cup for Pakistan.

Now Misbah-ul-Haq holds both records of being the oldest player and the oldest captain for Pakistan. He is still eight years younger for the world record of being oldest ODI player. Netherland’s Nolan Clarke holds the world record of being the oldest ODI player when he played against South Africa at Rawalpindi at the age of 47 years and 247 days in the 1996 World Cup.

Misbah-ul-Haq is still five years younger to beat the world record of being the oldest ODI captain. England’s slow left-arm orthodox bowler Norman Gifford captained England at the age of 44 years and 361 days against Pakistan at Sharjah in 1985 Rothmans Cup.

OLDEST ODI PLAYERS FOR PAKISTAN

Following 12 players have played ODIs for Pakistan after the age of 36:

Player                   Age        Opponent           Venue                  Batting                  Bowling

Misbah-ul-Haq  39-155   South Africa       Sharjah                 31(49)                                                   30.10.2013

Younis Ahmed   39-151   India                      Hyderabad          26(69)                   —                             20.03.1987

Imran Khan         39-121   England                                Melbourne         72(110)                 1/43(6.2)              25.03.1992

Javed Miandad 38-271   India                      Bangalore            38(64), 2 ct          —                             09.03.1996

Zaheer Abbas    38-102   Sri Lanka              Hyderabad          26(27)                   2/26(7)                 03.11.1985

Abdul Qadir        38-048   Sri Lanka              Sharjah                 7*(7)                     0/35(7.2)              02.11.1993

Mohammad Nazir 37-308 Australia           Sydney                 2*(8)                     0/67(9)                 10.01.1984

Inzamam-ul-Haq 37-018                Zimbabwe          Kingston              37(35), 3 ct          —                             21.03.2007

Wasim Akram    36-274   Zimbabwe           Bulawayo            DNB                       —                             04.03.2003

Mohammad Yousuf 36-073 SA                   Dubai                    3(5)                        —                             08.11.2010

Saleem Malik     36-053   India                      Manchester       6(19)                      —                             08.06.1999

Asif Iqbal             36-014   West Indies        The Oval              17(20), 1 ct          4/56(11)               20.06.1979

OLDEST ODI PLAYERS FOR EACH COUNTRY

Following is the list of the oldest player for each country that has played One Day International cricket.

Nolan Clarke      47-257   Netherlands v SA at Rawalpindi 32(46)                   —                             05.03.1996          

John Traicos       45-312   Zimbabwe v India at Pune            4(6)                        1/50(10)               25.03.1993

Norman Gifford 44-361 England v Pak at Sharjah               0, 1 ct                    4/23(10)               26.03.1985

Rahul Sharma    43-308   Hong Kong v Pak at Colombo      1(3)                        —                             18.07.2004

Jan Louw             43-226   Namibia v Zim at Harare                DNB, 1 ct              1/60(10)               10.02.2003

Donald Pringle   43-44     East Africa v Eng at Birmingham 3(12)                      0/41(12)               14.06.1975

Donovan Blake  42-284   USA v Aus at Southampton         0(2)                        0/7(1)                    13.09.2004

Somachandra de Silva 42-261 SL v WI at Melbourne         5(19)                      —                             27.02.1985

Clive Rice             42-114   SA v Ind                at New Delhi                     DNB                       1/54(9)                 14.11.1991

Bobby Simpson 42-068   Aus v WI at Castries                        23(29), 1 ct          2/30(7)                 12.04.1978

Sunil Dhaniram  41-261   Canada v Neth at Rotterdam      9(18)                      0/16(3)                 05.07.2010

Iain Philip             40-349   Scotland v BD at Edinburgh          3(17), 3 ct            —                             24.05.1999

Jahangir Shah    40-283   Bangladesh v NZ at Sharjah         DNB, 1 ct              0/62(9)                 28.04.1990

Lance Gibbs        40-251   WI v SL  at Manchester                  DNB                       0/17(4)                 07.06.1975

Bevan Congdon                40-156   NZ v Eng at Manchester                                2(21)                      0/26(11)               17.07.1978

Stephen Tikolo  39-268   Kenya v Zim at Kolkata                   10(14)                   0/49(7)                 20.03.2011

Misbah-ul-Haq  39-155   Pakistan v SA at Sharjah                                31(49)                   —                             30.10.2013

David Jonston    39-130   Ireland v Scotland at Belfast        24(34)                   0/60(9)                 06.09.2013

Shaukat Dukanwala 39-40 UAE v Neth at Lahore                                DNB                       5/29(10)               01.03.1996

Mohinder Amarnath 39-36 India v WI at                Mumbai               15(47)                   —                             30.10.1989

David Hemp       38-151   Bermuda v Neth at Potchefstroom 81(101), 1 ct —                             08.04.2009

Karim Sadiq        29-228   Afghanistan v Kenya at Sharjah DNB                       2/10(7)                 04.10.2013

 

 

 

Leg spinner is Pakistan’s latest export commodity

In March 1979, Pakistan played two hard-fought Test matches in Australia. In the first Test at Melbourne, Australia was chasing a target of 382 to win, was comfortably placed at 305 for 3 with Allan Border and Kim Hughes batting at 105 and 84. At that hopeless point, Sarfraz Nawaz bowled a magical spell and took seven wickets for only one run to finish with 9 for 86 in the innings. Australians crashed to 310 all out and were beaten by 71 runs. On the first day of the Test match, March 10, a boy was born in a remote town called Merguz in Pakistan’s North Western Frontier Province. His parents named the boy Fawad Ahmed.

In the second Test played at Perth, Australia had managed first innings lead of 50. At the end of third day, Pakistan was 19 for 1. In those days, Test matches had a rest day following the third day. Next morning, March 27, was the rest day of the Test match. Thousands miles away, back in Lahore, Pakistan, a boy was born. His parents named the newborn Mohammad Imran Tahir. Pakistan lost the Test match by seven wickets on final day and the series was squared 1-1.

More than 34 years later, the same boy born on the rest day of second Test, playing for South Africa in a Test match at Dubai, minced Pakistani batting into tiny pieces. Yes, I am talking about Imran Tahir – South Africa’s Lahore-born right-arm leg spinner. The other boy, Fawad Ahmad is also a leg break googly bowler who has started his international career for Australia earlier in the year.

Pakistan is not a great exporting country. Traditionally it has been exporting commodities like textiles, rice, carpets, leather, sports goods and manpower. In recent years, it is exporting another commodity – right-arm leg-break googly bowlers to play cricket for other countries. Two of exported leg spinners Fawad Ahmad and Imran Tahir are playing for Australia and South Africa these days. Ironically Pakistan does not have any leg-break bowler to play for its own country since Mushtaq Ahmed got retired a decade ago.

Fawad Ahmad, who had played 10 First-class matches in Pakistan for Abbottabad and Pakistan Customs, fled to Australia in 2010 as asylum seeker. He settled in Melbourne and started playing for Victoria. Eventually he qualified to play for Australia and in the summer of 2013 played three One Day Internationals and two Twenty20 International matches for his adopted country.

Imran Tahir made his First-class debut for his home team Lahore City against Faisalabad in a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match at Faisalabad in November 1996. Interestingly, that was also First-class debut match for Faisalabad off spinner Saeed Ajmal. Both were teenage boys at that time and both captured four wickets each in first innings against each other’s team.

Imran Tahir played First-class cricket for Lahore City, WAPDA, REDCO, Lahore Whites, SNGPL, Sialkot, Lahore Blues, PIA, Lahore Lions, Pakistan A and Lahore Ravi between 1996 and 2006. He moved to England in 2003 and played First-class cricket for Middlesex, Yorkshire, Hampshire and Warwickshire between 2003 and 2011. His final destination was South Africa where he started playing First-class cricket for Titans in 2007 and later played for Easterns, Dolphins and Lions before gradually moving up the ladder to be part of South African Test team.

Imran Tahir sunk Pakistani batting line for only 99 on opening day of second Test match at Dubai. He captured 5 wickets for 32 runs without help of any fielder – four clean bowled and one leg-before-wicket. He became first right-arm spin bowler to take five-for since South Africa returned to international cricket twenty years ago. Since then four bowlers Paul Harris, Robin Peterson, Nicky Boje and Paul Adams returned with five-wicket hauls and all were slow left-arm orthodox bowlers.

Last right-arm bowler to take five wickets in an innings for South Africa was Harry Bromfield, an off-spinner who did that against England in 1965. Hugh Tayfield was the most famous South African all-time spin bowler. He was an off spinner who took five-fors on 14 occasions in 1950s.

Aubrey Faulkner was South Africa’s best right-arm leg-break googly bowler in its all-time history. He played 25 Test matches between 1906 and 1924 and took 82 wickets including four five-fors. He holds the record for best bowling performance by a South African leg spinner when he took 6 for 17 against England at Leeds in 1907. He captured five-for three more times in his career.

Before Imran Tahir, last leg-break googly bowler to take five wickets in an innings for South Africa was Bruce Mitchell against Australia at Durban in 1936. Xen Balaskas against England at Lords in 1935 and Quintin McMillan who did twice against New Zealand at Christchurch and Wellington in 1932 were the other two leg-break googly bowlers to take five wickets in an innings for South Africa.

Imran Tahir also holds another record that no bowler cherishes – conceding most runs in a Test match without taking a wicket. Pakistan’s Khan Mohammad held that most unwanted record for 54 years who conceded 259 runs in 54 overs against West Indies at Kingston in February 1958 in the innings when Sir Garry Sobers’ smashed world record score of 365 not out.

Imran Tahir eventually broke Khan Mohammad’s record in November 2012 against Australia at Adelaide. He conceded 260 runs without taking any wicket in only 37 overs. Zimababwe’s Ray Price and South Africa’s Nicky Boje are only two other bowlers in Test cricket’s history to concede more than 200 runs in a Test match without taking a wicket.

Imran Tahir and Fawad Ahmed, both are in action at international level. Imran Tahir became first South African leg-break googly bowler to take five wickets in a Test match innings in 77 years. It is yet to be seen that how long they can play for their adopted countries. Pakistan discarded and others embraced them. It is a question mark on the abilities of Pakistani selectors too. Notwithstanding, leg spinner is the most exciting export commodity for Pakistan these days.

 

Another wake-up call for the Australians!

Australian team lost their Twenty20 International match against India at Rajkot – a fast growing industrial city in the India’s state of Gujarat. Australia scored 201 for 7 in their allotted 20 overs. Aaron Finch played another aggressive knock of 89 in only 52 balls. Chasing 202 to win, India achieved the target with two balls to spare. India’s six wickets win was highlighted by a thumping comeback inning by Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj hit 77 off only 35 balls with the help of eight boundaries and five massive sixes.

Luck was also on India’s side as Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won a very important toss. Day and night matches in India’s western and northern cities favor heavily to the team batting second due to all important dew factor. By winning the toss, chase became easier under wet conditions in the night.

Yuvraj Singh was on sidelines since last 10 months as he was asked to confirm his full fitness. Following a successful training program in France, Yuvraj Singh – explosive left-handed Indian batsman – made yet another comeback in the national side with a bang. He thrashed Australian bowlers on all sides of the wicket for his mighty sixes and powerful boundaries. Dew factor was an additional advantage for him as Australian bowlers were unable to get ball movement in wet conditions. His unbeaten 102 runs partnership for the fifth wicket with his team skipper sealed an easy win for India.

Yuvraj singh’s inning elevated his Twenty20 International career’s strike rate by five points from 148 to 153. His unbeaten 77 was his career-best in 34 matches. His aggregate in this format of cricket is now 868 runs at an average of 33.38 with a strike rate exceeding 153 and has hit seven half centuries. Yuvraj Singh has hit 53 fours and 59 sixes in 34 Twenty20 Internationals so far.

India has been consistent in winning matches in Twenty20 International cricket in recent years. India is now placed third in ICC Twenty20 International ranking. With 123 points, India is only two points behind second ranked Pakistan (125 points) and five points separate India from highest ranked team Sri Lanka (128 points).

Australia is far behind in the ICC Twenty20 International rankings. Australia is now jointly ranked seventh with New Zealand. The two countries across the Tasman Sea have only 102 points each. These two are almost at the bottom among regular established cricket playing countries. Only Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and minnows of cricket are behind Australia and New Zealand.

The best team happened to Australian Twenty20 International team in recent past is arrival of Aaron Finch. He blasted world record 156 against England at Southampton only two months ago and his blistering knock at Rajkot are a big relief for the Australian team. But this is not enough. Australia has not won many Twenty20 Internationals in recent past.

Australia needs to re-strategize to come up with the standard called as Australian standard. Cricket fans in all parts of the world expect Australian team to deliver much better results what they are doing now. Wake up Australian Think Tanks. Rajkot’s match was another wake-up call.

 

Bye Bye Mr. Dav Whatmore?

When Australia’s Dav Whatmore was signing contract with Pakistan Cricket Board to take the job of Chief Coach of national cricket team, I was thinking he is actually signing a contract of humiliating exit from the position. He is fourth in line of foreign coaches hired by Pakistan Cricket Board to head the coaching assignment for the national cricket team – two South Africans and as many Australians. None of the previous three completed their contracted tenure – two were sacked and one was brutally murdered.

I recalled few years ago Dav Whatmore was shortlisted for the assignment of Chief Coach of Pakistan cricket team along with another Australian Geoff Lawson but he lost the bid as senior players had told Pakistan Cricket Board management that they would not accept Dav Whatmore because he had a reputation of maintaining very strict discipline. Geoff Lawson was chosen because of his softness but had to quit in disgrace as senior players never cooperated with him. He was sacked in the mid of his contract term.

South Africa’s Richard Pybus was the first foreign coach of Pakistan cricket team in 1999. His rise and fall was instant. His first assignment was 1999 World Cup to be played in England. Pakistan had a dream start and successfully reached to the final. This was the instant rise of Richard Pybus. Then Pakistan lost the final against Australia at Lord’s and Richard Pybus was sacked immediately on the spot. Instead of taking flight to Pakistan with team, he had to take his flight back home to South Africa.

Another South African Bob Woolmer was not sacked but he was murdered. He was Pakistan’s chief coach for 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean. For the first time in Pakistan team’s history that it did not qualify for the second round and was eliminated after a shocking defeat at the hands of minnows Ireland. Following the humiliating defeat, Bob Woolmer was strangulated in his hotel room. Like Richard Pybus, he too did not take flight to Pakistan along with the team but took a direct flight to South Africa but not as a passenger but as a dead body in a coffin.

Exit time for Dav Whatmore hasn’t arrived as yet, but signals of the impending arrival are already coming at an alarming pace. Following severe criticism in Pakistani media by former players and experts, some team members are also criticizing him. Saeed Ajmal, Pakistani team’s ace spinner and one of the most senior players has said that Dav Whatmore has made ‘no difference’ in his time as chief coach of the team. When asked to elaborate ‘no difference’, Saeed Ajmal said, “there is no difference, just that we are paying more to him, otherwise there is no difference”. He also stressed on language difference and said there is a definite communication gap especially with junior players who are shy or unable to communicate in a foreign language.

Pakistan has not won any Test series during Dav Whatmore’s 18 months assignment as chief coach of Pakistan cricket team. Recently Pakistan could barely draw the series against Zimbabwe 1-1. Dav Whatmore attained unprecedented fame in 1996 World Cup when Sri Lankan team won the title in a grand fashion of remaining unbeaten in the entire tournament. A simple plain fact is that unlike Sri Lanka, it is impossible for a foreign coach to handle Pakistan cricket team where senior players exhibit extreme player’ power and junior players are too shy and unable to communicate in English.

Pakistan’s next series starts on 14 October against South Africa at neutral venues in the desert of United Arab Emirates. If Pakistan loses, it would be almost impossible for Dav Whatmore to retain his post. The only hope is to draw the series by making flat wickets and comeback unbeaten. Even if this happens, player’ power would play the deciding role and that’s how I can say a bye bye to Dav Whatmore in not a very distant future. If I go by speculation, it would not be too early to say “Bye bye Mr. Dav Whatmore”.