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Mushtaq Mohammed, the younger brother of legends Hanif and Wazir Mohammed, captained Pakistan in 19 Test matches from 1976-77 to 1978-79. During this time, he led Pakistan ably against the seemingly undefeatable giants of world cricket - Australia and West Indies. He later led Pakistan to a series victory against arch rivals India in 1978-79.
His career at the helm of Pakistani cricket was cut short due to inexplicable circumstances and he retired in 1978.
PakPassion.net had the distinct honour of interviewing this great veteran cricketer and he spoke in fascinating detail to us about his early days, his career and his eventual retirement from cricket.
The link to the audio portion of this interview is attached below and the transcript added as well - thanks to PPs dedicated band of volunteers - Violet_May, Inswinger, PakCricketFan, SOSAMi and Khabri420.
Let me add that as a schoolboy who first fell in love with cricket after watching Pakistan play India in 1978 at the NSK, I could never have imagined that I would be able to speak in person to one of the heroes of that day - little did I know....
His career at the helm of Pakistani cricket was cut short due to inexplicable circumstances and he retired in 1978.
PakPassion.net had the distinct honour of interviewing this great veteran cricketer and he spoke in fascinating detail to us about his early days, his career and his eventual retirement from cricket.
The link to the audio portion of this interview is attached below and the transcript added as well - thanks to PPs dedicated band of volunteers - Violet_May, Inswinger, PakCricketFan, SOSAMi and Khabri420.
Let me add that as a schoolboy who first fell in love with cricket after watching Pakistan play India in 1978 at the NSK, I could never have imagined that I would be able to speak in person to one of the heroes of that day - little did I know....
[utube]VzP99BTTFJI[/utube]
PakPassion.net: Why did you decide to play cricket and how was it growing up in a household with Hanif Mohammad as your elder brother?
Mushtaq Mohammad: Well, I just followed suit really. Eversince I was a child, I always heard my elder brothers Wazir, Raees and Hanif [as well as their friends], always talking about cricket. They would be playing and we would watch. Even at home, we would eat, drink, and sleep cricket all the time [laughs]. So obviously, cricket was the game I was going to follow after growing up. Myself and Sadiq, who is my younger brother 3 yrs younger than me, we just followed suit really. And this happened just after partition, when we migrated from India to Pakistan. In early days, we lived in Karachi and cricket was the only thing we would talk about in the house. We would play with a tennis ball together with our friends, our little brothers and whatnot. So, this was the beginning of our career.
PakPassion.net: And in terms of your role models, would you say Hanif bhai was your role model in that way?
Mushtaq Mohammad: Well, I was 15 at that stage and Hanif was the wonder-boy of Pakistan. You know he was well talked about like Imran Khan is nowadays and well; Hanif Mohammad was the cricketer that Pakistan had produced and he was recognized in many ways. Raees bhai was very influential in our careers. My elder brother Raees Mohammad who always had time to play cricket with us [myself, Sadiq, and our other cousins], and he always devoted his time to all the youngsters. So first we owe a lot to Raees bhai and then to Hanif and Wazir bhai. You know, this is how we were brought up.
PakPassion.net: From your records, everybody knows that you played your first test match at a very young age. I mean you were what, 15 years old, and you were facing one of the fastest bowlers of that era, Wes Hall. How was that experience? What was your maturity like - just take us through a bit of that experience.
Mushtaq Mohammad: Yes, we have played against West Indies and in Peshawar, there was a 3 day match and I think I got about 50 odd runs against them. The match ended in a draw-it was a 3 day match-and I bowled one or two overs as well. Next day, early in the morning, we boarded the train from Peshawar as we were going to Karachi and it was a couple of days and nights journey. So it’s about 8 o’clock in the evening [Lahore came on the way], and a lot of senior cricketers like Alimuddin, Waqar Hassan, Mohammad Munaf and many others who were playing together, they got off the train at Lahore as local organizers were there to receive them. One organizer enquired, “Who is Mushtaq Mohammad?” and someone replied “He’s sleeping on the upper berth, on the train” and they got me down and they told me “you are in the fourteen selected for the test match” and I said “fine!. Everybody after a while just disappeared in their own direction and I was left there on my own when this organizer, he said, “Why don’t you go home as well?”
I said, “Look, I live in Karachi and this is Lahore. I don’t know anybody here; I have never been to Lahore and this is my first time. You got me off the train and now you are telling me to go home? The train has already left.” He then said, “Don’t you know anyone? Can’t you stay with your friends or your relatives or anyone?” And I said, “I told you this is my first time in Lahore and I don’t know anyone.” He then asked me, “Your two elder brothers are here?” and I said, “Yes, they are here and they have been coming here for a long time.”
So then he said, “Well, go and stay with them” to which I responded, “I don’t know where they are.” You see in those days [I am talking about 1957 or 1958], when Pakistan played a home series, the players never stayed at a hotel; they would stay with their relations, either at their own house, or with their relatives or at their friends’ house. Anyways, one of my brothers, Wazir Mohammad, he stayed at Mazang somewhere. He stayed with a friend of a major somebody [I don’t know his name], and these people took me there and by the time we reached there, it was half past 12 in the morning. My brother was surprised to see me and he enquired what I am doing at midnight and you know, he said, “What are you doing?”
I just responded, “Well, they got me off the train.” This organizer then explained everything about why I was taken off and anyways, the next morning I was asked to attend a net session at Lawrence Gardens [Bagh-e-Jinnah]. There, I was in my own cricket gear [what I used to play with]. Along with the same white shirt and trousers, I played with white Bata shoes and that’s all I had. Fazal Mahmood was the captain at the time and he had one good look at me and he said, “Young man, you haven’t even got the gear to play. How will you play the Test match?” I just said, “I don’t know. They just got me off the train and I don’t know anything else but this.” He then said, “Your brothers are here so borrow some gear from your brothers.”
So anyways, I borrowed Hanif Mohammad’s shoes and because I had my own trousers with me, they let me wear my own trousers and this is how I played my first Test match against West Indies. So you know, this was a very useful incident and I was there in the nets for a couple of days along with Intikhab Alam, who was another youngster. SF Rehman [Fazal-ur-Rehman] was another legspinner there and also, Mohammad Rehman from Bahawalpur was yet another legspinner at hand. So, there were 4 legspinners who were bowling in the nets [at a time] against the likes of Saeed Ahmed or Imtiaz Ahmed, and all the big guns of Pakistan in those days. As we were all bowling, I turned out to be the best and so, they picked me out of the 4 and they gave me an ultimatum that: “You have got to produce the proper pair of cricket shoes with spikes in it and then, you are going to produce some proper gear.”
This was because you see, you had to do it all on your own. Even shirts, pants or trousers, you name anything, it had to be your own because the Cricket Board would not provide anything as they didn’t have anything. Anyways, I borrowed everything from my brother and I turned up and so, this is how I played.
PakPassion.net: One of our members wants to know which of your innings do you rate the highest? Was it the 121 on a fast Sydney wicket against the likes of Lillee, Walker, and Massie or was it the 121 against Roberts, Croft, and Garner on a relatively slower wicket at Port of Spain? Both of these innings came again the fastest pace attacks of that time. Which one stands out more?
Mushtaq Mohammad: The 1972 tour was my first tour of Australia so my brother Hanif gave me some advice before I left. He had toured Australia earlier in 1964-65 and had done a great job there. In 6 innings he had score almost 500 runs. Hanif told me you are going there – wish you all the best and to expect quick wickets in Australia and try to score as many runs as you can and you will love batting on it and that I would enjoy batting on them.
So those words were ringing in my ears all the time. I went to Australia and the first 2 matches went by and I really didn't do much. I said to myself that we are coming to the end of the series and I haven’t done anything significant to be remembered and because there was so much hype in the press surrounding the Australian team. They were supposed to be the best team and had some great players like Chappell brothers, Thompson, Rodney Marsh playing for them – they were the Gods of cricket and on top of that we were playing in Australia. And to top THAT, I was told to perform by my elder brother Hanif! He said I needed to score at least a hundred during the tour. Those were the things that pressurised me and I said I have got to act. So when that hundred came at Sydney, it was good not only for my own pride that I scored against Australia – but it also put Pakistan in a winning position – we were going to win this test match in Sydney for the very first time. Then our bowlers had done a great job of bowling out Australia for a low score and we only needed 159 runs to win the match in the fourth innings and we collapsed – you can read about the scores etc. It was heart breaking loss for us – I couldn’t understand how we could lose that match. I forgot about my hundred! We needed 159 to win and that would have been our first win in Australia. I was in tears. Most of us were [in tears as well]. When we lost, even the opposition, the Australians, they felt for us. I can remember Ian Chappell telling me that you have to win it – Test matches have to be won. Nobody is going to hand you a victory on a platter. Very disheartening but I one thing is that I got my hundred on that trip – that was my first hundred and that’s how I remember it.
The 1977 tour of the West Indies was my first tour there. I was under a lot of pressure heading into that series. The West Indies tour came on the heels of our 77 tour of Australia. We had just won a match at Sydney and had flown right to the West Indies. The tour got off to a rough start as we felt we had been cheated out of a win at Barbados. The umpiring in that match was terrible. Can you imagine that Andy Roberts and Deryck Murray blocked the mandatory 14 overs – I could see the picture in front of me - we had hit their pads countless times and each of them out at least half a dozen times. The umpire said to me, “Mushy, you see those three stumps?”, I said yeah, then he said that "well, one of them had to be hit if we wanted to win the match." I said to the umpire - “There's a man standing between the stumps and the bowler. And the rules state, that if we keep hitting his pads and the rules say that if he in line [of his stumps] he should be given out.” He just looked at me and said, “Not in my life. If I give him out LBW here then they will burn down my house.” The umpire was someone called Douglas – you can look it up – he said they will burn me, burn my house or even my family! Anyways, that match ended up being a draw.
The second test match we played, the West Indies won it. As the tour went on and on, I was again feeling the pressure having been deprived of a win. Starting the tour with a victory would have made a big difference to the Pakistan team and perhaps we would have gone on to win the series! But it wasn’t to be and we had to settle for what was thrown at us. The West Indies won the second test and we went to Guyana drew the match and then came back to Trinidad to play the 4th Test.
That was the best Pakistan team I had under me. There were some big individual names like Sadiq Mohammed, Sarfraz Nawaz, Wasim Bari, Intikhab Alam, Majid and Asif. In the team meetings, I tried to motivate them by telling that they [mighty West Indians] were not better than us. I said that Australians were far better than the West Indies and we beat them in Australia so why can’t we beat West Indies here? And I reminded them that we should have won the first Test match if it were not for the bad umpiring. So don’t pull yourselves down and you need to pull your selves together and get yourself going and believe that you can win this test match.
As I said the boys were very talented and probably the best Pakistani team we ever had playing in West Indies. I think I managed to get a 100 in the 4th test match. I was under a lot of pressure as I didn’t score any runs in the first test match at Barbados, in the 2nd Test match in Trinidad again I failed miserably. In the 3rd Test match in Guyana I got 40 odd in one innings. You know being a captain, I wasn’t performing that well and I was feeling very guilty about myself being in the team – the team is slipping away and going down. So in one of the meetings I stood up and said, Look there is a youngster with the team called Javed Miandad. He’s been sitting out and he is potentially a very good player and should play for Pakistan. We will play him and I will step down because I am not getting any runs and let Asif Iqbal captain the side. Then everybody kept quiet and didn’t say a thing in the meeting. When the meeting was over, Majid Khan came to my room and said to me – are you mad? You are our captain and captains are leaders. We want a leader just not a captain. He really motivated me in a very positive way. He said that, You are going to play and you are the leader. That gave me a lot of encouragement. Somehow, the sparkle [to succeed] came into me. I took that match and said that this is MY match and I am going to do something. I had that feeling in my bone and GOD really helped me. I got a few runs and some wickets and we ended up winning this test match. I got 121 runs and 5 wickets in the first innings and getting 56 runs and 3 wickets in the second innings. We bowled them out cheaply. Everybody was overjoyed. We were at equal terms with the West Indies and squared the series at that point.
PakPassion.net: Mushtaq Sahib – continuing down memory lane. The 1977-78 India versus Pakistan series – the cricketing ties between the two countries had resumed after a long time. What was that series like? It is always fascinating to hear what the pressure was like as the two teams were playing a series after a long time and a lot was riding on it.
Mushtaq Mohammad: It was a great feeling – the resumption of Test series between two great cricketing nations – India and Pakistan. It could not get any bigger than that as far as India and Pakistan were concerned. Unfortunately, we had been kept apart because of the politics. Cricketers who came from this part of the world had always been very talented and they had a lot to give to the great game of cricket. It has been proven over the years by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Bishan Singh Bedi from India and Inzamam, Javed Miandad, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis from Pakistan – what a great band of cricketers they are!
We were not allowed to play against each other only due to politics. Anyway, the series resumed in 1977-78 after nearly twenty years. The first tour of my cricketing career was to India in the year 1960. I was only sixteen and a half years old then. I had thought I would get to play against India for the rest of my life. But it didn’t turn out to be that way. We went on the tour of India in 1960 and it was only in 1978 – after almost twenty years that India came to tour Pakistan! All that time in between had been wasted – not only mine but also of a lot of other cricketers who could have performed [against India] remarkably but they were deprived.
However, during the 1977-78 series, Bishan Singh Bedi was named India’s captain and I was the captain of Pakistan team and funnily enough, from 1972 to 1976, Bishan Singh Bedi and I had been playing County cricket for the same team – Northamptonshire. We used to live next door to each other. He was a wonderful friend. In fact, we still talk on the phone and keep in touch with each other. Whenever I go to Delhi, I stay with him and he visits me whenever he comes to Birmingham. Our friendship began in 1972. So we had known each other for six years at the time when India toured Pakistan in 1978. Nobody could have written a better script! Bishan Singh Bedi was appointed captain to lead the Indian side on its tour to Pakistan, and I was declared captain for Pakistan! This became a much-talked about topic – people had doubts about the series would go since the two of us were good friends – all kinds of speculations were discussed. Bishan came to me and said that look, whatever happens on the field , we will still be friends after six o’clock. Of course, I agreed and said we would remain friends forever. This is how he and I played the game in exactly the same way. Although we were politically pressurised by the governments, by the public and by the media, we ensured – Bish and me that these things did not come in between our friendship. We believed we were collectively bigger than what the media and public wanted us to be, bigger than the pressure of the poiticians. They would say [In URDU: Kuch hojaya, humnay India say naheen harna, Kuch hojayay, aap qatal hokar ajayain magar India say naheed harna] “Don’t lose against India no matter what happens” and “Get yourselves killed but don’t lose against Pakistan”. These were the types of sentiments that were there. Even today, when India and Pakistan play against each other, similar sentiments are seen all around. If that’s the case, how about not playing at all? Why do you even play when you have such feelings? You cannot strengthen the relations unless you play. Cricket is a binding force – millions watch in on tv etc – why not use it for a good purpose? Winning and losing is part of the game.
All in all, it was one of the most memorable series I have played. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
PakPassion.net: The next question is slightly controversial – it is about the circumstances under which you were removed from captaincy. I think someone of your caliber should have had a better farewell. What are your thoughts on that?
Mushtaq Mohammad: I have mentioned it in my book as well. There were mysterious circumstances under which I withdrew myself, not removed from the captaincy. I was picked for the 1979 World Cup in England but I withdrew myself to give a chance to a youngster named Haroon Rasheed.
What had happened was that eversince I had been handed the captaincy in 1976, the team grew from strength to strength. We were a good unit – we were united. Each individual was performing for themselves and the team eventually. We were producing results against Australia in Australia and then against the West Indies in West Indies. Those were the two best cricketing tours of my life. Considering the amount of cricket we played the quality of our cricket and the results that we brought - this was the pinnacle of my career. It was the best time of my career. I was becoming popular as a captain. India came to Pakistan and we won two Test matches in a very dramatic fashion at Lahore and Karachi respectively. So I was being compared with Abdul Hafiz Kardar who was the best captain Pakistan had ever produced. He was well talked about and he was a disciplinarian. He did wonders for Pakistan cricket, both as a player and as a captain and as an administrator. We needed a person like Abdul Hafiz Kardar. He was well-educated, too. He was a good cricketer – and he wanted to see Pakistan cricket flourish and he wanted to bring some good youngsters to carry on the good work that he had left behind and we were grateful to him – and we carried on. Fortunately, I had a very good team. Half of the players had been playing County cricket and performing well. They were the best players in the world at that time and I had the privilege to lead them and we produced good results.
All senior players like Asif [Iqbal], Majid [Khan], [Wasim] Bari, Zaheer [Abbas] and Imran [Khan], unfortunately, for no reason at all ganged up against me. They started talking that his [Mushtaq’s] performance in all this progress where in the last 3 years we have been winning and well talked about is all because “we” have performed on the field. Mushy – he’s done nothing! And this was professional jealousy that came in. I have written about the entire incident in my book as well. I was extremely hurt as I was let down by the people who had put me on the top. They are the same people who threw me off the cliff saying that you [Mushtaq] were not needed and that you [Mushtaq] were simply a part of it [the rest of the teams success]. That hurt and I didn’t want to be a part of the team which feels that I was a mere passenger. That I am just there to make up the numbers. I didn’t want to be the rotting furniture in the night. I had played with great pride, I had performed and I had played on my merit. I didn’t want [ URDU: Mujhay koyee meherbanee kar kay Cricket khilayay] anyone to select me out of pity.
All of the players were younger to me. They were of the view that they didn’t need me anymore and the positive results that the team had been producing of late were all because of them. I thought that my time had come, so I said Thank you very much! I was 36 years old at that time so cricket wasn’t really my future either. I was named captain for the 1979 World Cup in England. However, I said to them that look, my type of bowling [slow leg-spin] was not required in the ODI World Cup. Instead, a youngster – a medium pacer or a fast bowler, about ten years younger than me would be a better option. Haroon Rasheed was one of them . He had been left out of the side. So I said, If I step down, he will come in place of me. With GOD as my witness that’s what I thought. Nowadays, people call me the biggest fool in the world - no body has done it [before] – who are you to do this? Are you trying to be whiter than white. As they say in URDU “apnay paoon mai khood kulhari marna” [English: shot myself in the foot]
Anyway, I said that we want win the World Cup and Haroon Rasheed had a lot more to offer than me. At 36 years of age, cricket wasn’t my future anyway. I joined Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and went on to serve them for seventeen years.
PakPassion.net: You mentioned player power resulting in you leaving prematurely, is this a Pakistani trait, weakness of the board or is it just the quality of the people?
Mushtaq Mohammad: It's become a trait. When I was captain, we took up an argument against the cricket board and Abdul Hafeez Kardar who was the chairman of the PCB and a great man, a great pillar of Pakistani cricket. We had an argument that we were going to the West Indies and Australia, and I said to them that we should be given more than $5 a week for our laundry. We received about $35 - $40 per week with which you had your evening meal and look after our own laundry and things like this. What used to happen in the 1972-73 tour, we used to play from 11am to 6pm, you arrived back at the hotel and had a little rest and all this and you had a meal somewhere and then you come back and you're washing your clothes because next day you need them. We are sitting in the laundrette washing our clothes, thinking we were an international side! Why are we doing this?
Some of the boys were washing their clothes in the room, we thought something had to change so when we were leaving in 1977 we said [to the PCB] we don't want this to be repeated – give us $5 more per week so we can have our washing done by the hotel. Back then, things weren't that expensive. Only $5 per week and we could save our energy after playing cricket all day, rather than washing our clothes at night. It was stupid! A man of his stature, a man of his experience, I'm talking to a man who put Pakistan on the world map, being the first captain and I had so much respect for him, I'm almost talking to a GOD of Pakistan cricket and he's arguing with me for $5 extra for laundry. That argument broke out from thereon and then we were playing New Zealand in Pakistan and there was a test match at Hyderabad, in which two teams arrived. The New Zealanders were the tourists, but Pakistan had two teams over there – there were about 40 players! It was because we threatened not to play, and Kardar came and I remember he came in a cycle-rickshaw at 7 o'clock in the morning to persuade me to take the team on the field. I said, and we used to call him the skipper, I said “skipper, it's only a matter of $5, and it's well-spent. What are you doing? I feel embarrassed and ashamed that you have had to come in a rickshaw and meet me. Why are you doing this?” and he replied “you don't understand, to get even $1 from the Pakistani government, it's like taking blood out of a stone”. I said “I fully appreciate your problem, but you have to fight. We are representing a Pakistan team and you are the best man. You should go out and make statements in favour of the Pakistan team rather than going out and saying we are mercenaries.” The board turned against us and went public, and this is how player power started.
Then we came back after the Australia and West Indies tours, Kardar resigned and after that us players retired – myself, Asif Iqbal, Majid [Khan], Zaheer [Abbas] – we'd had our time.
New players came along, Imran Khan was made captain, Miandad who was the wonderboy of Pakistan cricket and as time went on new things came out. After that, the second cricket board came youngsters who had seen [what had happened], they thought the seniors, they were fighting for us! They were saying there was no money in cricket, what were they trying to do, cricketers didn't have any money in those days and all the full stadiums in Karachi and Lahore and everywhere, the money is coming in but not coming out in the right direction for the players' benefit. It was going into the organiser's pockets. This is why we stood up as a senior cricketer and hoped that our juniors would follow them and that they would realise that, and they tried to pick up the argument with the relevant cricket board of those days.
Until Imran Khan was in charge I think everything was well, because he was an educated guy and the people that used to run Pakistan cricket and the administrators were also very sensible and sensitive about Pakistan cricket. Since then, unfortunately Pakistan cricket went into the wrong hands and we've been suffering ever since.
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