Salahuddin Haider
A young leg spinner from Hyderabad, who spent his life time in England, and holds the world record of covering 450 Test matches, and over 700 ODIs got a tremendous ovation, and tribute for publishing his autobiography which the Chairman of Habib Bank Sultan Ai Allana launched in Karachi Monday. Qamar Ahmad, holds many records, represented BBC for 32 years, is a permanent reporter for Wisden Cricket Almanac, and had the singular honour of writing for England and India’s major newspapers like Telegraph, The Times, and commentating for Newzealand and many other TV, touring with Pakistan and other countries cricket teams, is world renowned and had even was privileged to meet Sir Don Bradman, and great South African African leader Nelson Mandela along with Sunil Gavaskar and Ritchie Benaud of India and Australia.
A galaxy of luminaries like world record holder, Jahangir Khan, eight times British Open winner of prestigious Squad Tournament, former Pakistan cricketer, known as Asian Bradman, Zaheer Abbas, who was also ICC President for One year, former captains Mushtaq Mohammad, Sadiq Mohammad, Iqbal Qasim, now chairman of PCB cricket committee, former captain Wasim Bari, one of the best six wicket keepers of the world, Naseemul Ghani, media representatives, record holder for most Test runs and Test centuries Yunus Khan, former Pakistan captain who won the world T-20 championship in 2017 Safaraz Ahmad, and many more were in attendance.
As a spinner he had the privilege of claiming wickets of all the four brothers of Hanif Mohammad, the iconic figure and legen, who left the crease finally at 81 for permanent abode.
The HBL chairman Mr Allana paid eloquent tributes to Qamar, who despite being the tremendous spinner like late Haseeb Ahsan, and also bought 200 books for distribution among invited to the ceremony which despite being small, was highly impressive.
Qamar narrated lot of anecdotes from his long career, paid glowing tributes to Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Yunus Khan, and thanking Mr Allana for his support. The book titled “Far from a game” will be a tremendous reference for most libraries in the world, and all those enthusiastic about off and on the field cricket incidents, anecdotes etc.
