History: Pakistan's first ever captain, Abdul Hafeez Kardar

[Theo_14]

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I've always been a fan of History, whether that's related to cricket, football or politics. I think we are blessed with so many facilities which allow us to search of players that perhaps would have been recognised even greater if they had such facilities at their time, in particular video recordings of their performances.

From my research I'll try to summarize, anyone who wants a detailed word document version on our first captain ever which I have done, then do let me know. I've used several sources from old newspapers (from the library) and online sources.

• Abdul Hafeez Kardar was the player named as Pakistan's captain in 1952. He was an all rounder.

• He was a Test cricketer before Pakistan was even recognised, playing for India on the 1946 tour of England under the name Abdul Hafeez!

• He occasionaly lived in England, studied in Oxford. Some scholars say it was law but majority say he read PEE there.

• While in England, he represented Warwickshire for 2-3 seasons, he was married to the club chairman's daughter.

• He led his team to victories against ALL test playing nations at the time while he was captain BUT South Africa. Only because they did not play against them.

What was his attitude off and on the pitch described as?

On the pitch: " response to any bowler or situation was to dance down the track first ball and slam it back over the bowler's head, and a left-arm medium-paced bowler, economical on a good pitch, devastatingly effective on a bad one."

“He was one of those men who lifted ordinary men to perform extraordinary feats; he was an excellent motivator of people, and always believed in leading by example.”

Off the pitch: "In all his positions of authority, he was inclined to be dictatorial and quickly angered, especially by any hint of criticism. In some ways, his *****ly brilliance has become characteristic of his country's cricket. But he was also a visionary"

Journalist in Britain at the time said this about him: "batted like an Eastern mystic” to describe his skills, only to be published as “an Eastern mistake” the next day!"

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• "When England had toured Pakistan in 1956, Donald Carr and his men were not very amused with a series of biased decisions from the umpire Idris Begh. They played a prank on Begh in the evening, pouring a bucket of water on his head. Though the entire thing was considered a joke (even by Begh), Kardar did not see the lighter side of things. He dealt with the situation with an iron hand, and made the English management to apologise to Begh. At the same time, he also prophesised neutral umpires for Test cricket – a vision that was came true several decades later."
  
  Kardar seen as a visionary for this very reason.

Controversies?

• “I had just entered my hotel room and was about to take off my jacket when there was a knock in the door. On my beckoning, the caller entered. When I looked at him quizzically he said he was from the intelligence and wanted to know about my movements.”

This was encountered during tour of India in 1952, during that period there was a lot of tense in regards to Kashmir.

Bradman v Kardar:

• Kardar played a decent hand. He scored 54 and 29, and also bagged the wickets of centurion opener Bill Brown and stylish left-hander Neil Harvey.

This was not when Kardar was captain of Pakistan. He was representing a club while playing first class cricket v Australlia, who at the time were touring England.

For background and stats: http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan/content/player/41030.html

 

[slice]

Interesting...I guess he is the perfect blend of Misbah and Afridi.

 

[Savak]

Imran Khan did not like kardar and criticized him a lot in his autobiography

 

[Theo_14]

Imran Khan did not like kardar and criticized him a lot in his autobiography

Indeed because Imran Khan was part of the "fall-out squad in 1977" were there was dispute in regards to salaries. Though when Kardar retired, Imran Khan said:

Pakistani cricket will be thrown to the wolves, the cricket bureaucrats whose progeny still rule the game”.

Kardar was a strong character that's for sure.

 

[MenInG]

His death Anniversary today

 

[gani999]

He saw a young Pakistani batsman playing a league game during the 1970s and declared him as the 'find of the decade'. This young batsman was none other than Javed Miandad.

Abdul Kardar also served as Pakistan's ambassador to Switzerland for some time.

 

[fawad_wellwisher]

Interesting to see how well educated married Pakistani's were able to rope in English women in the 50's

One of the many issues on which Kardar is criticised, other than his dictatorial style of functioning, was his marriage with Helen Rosemary Hastilow in 1954. On the tour of 1954 tour of England, after winning the Oval test, Kardar flew to Cairo to quietly get married to Helen, daughter of Cyril Hastilow who was Warwickshire’s chairman at that time.

What made the matters complicated was that Abdul Kardar was already married to Shahzadi Parveen in 1951, who was incidentally a sister of his team-mate Zulfiqar Ahmed. It caused a few problems in the dressing room, with even the national daily Dawn reporting on it.

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

Technically Speaking, Kardar was not the First captain of Pakistan. The first captain of Pakistan was Mian Mohammad Saeed who was the first appointed captain for Pakistan's national cricket team. Kardar was the first captain after Pakistan were awarded the Test Status.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Doodle on google in Pakistan to mark the day Pakistan's first Test captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar was born. <br><br>Kardar was born 17th January 1925 and captained Pakistan in its first 23 Test matches and also led Pakistan to a famous victory at The Oval in 1954 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/o62X1mdM13">pic.twitter.com/o62X1mdM13</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1085658410039762944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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[PakLFC]

I think A H Kardar once killed a bird when batting. Was he related to former Pak player Azeem Hafeez?

 

[Sunny_majoka]

Very interesting. Want to know more about him

 

[Markhor]

When Kardar was PCB Chairman, he arranged Pakistan’s domestic and international commitments three years in advance in the mid-70s.

The bozos in PCB today can't arrange our domestic commitments even a year in advance.