IT is with utmost sadness and sense of loss of a dear old friend, supporter and a well-wisher, Waqar Hasan in Karachi on Monday after a prolonged illness which had kept him completely out of touch with his friends, well-wishers and out of touch with his sprawling international business for a long time.
I vividly re-call my very first meeting with Waqar in Gujranwala way back in 1948, when he had already made a name as cricketer of substance as a school boy playing for Mozang School. The school had produced several cricketer like fast bowler Mahmud Hussain, Khalid ibaidullah and others as another Lahore school, Islamia School Bhatti Gate, was celebrated to have produced players, like Imtaiz Ahmad, Nazar Mohammd and many others.
Waqar had accompanied Lahore Afghan Club to play a match at Gujranwala and those days apart from his superb batting,he also bowled medium pacers which he later gave up. Waqar moved on to the Government College, Lahore, and was soon to make his way to the eminence and the national team, first picked–up by late Mian Mohammad Saeed, the first Pakistan Captain who took him to Ceylon to play in un official tests before Pakistan got the official status as a member of ICC against India in 1952.
Waqar was also one of the players to be taken to England by Mian Saeed for coaching at the Alf Gover Coaching School along with several other notable players.
However, Waqar emerged as as a regular member of the Pakistan team under a new skipper Abdul Hafeez Kardar. On the first official Indian tour, Waqar was the one notable batsman who after the initial setback at the Dehli Test, learned how to cope with the Indian spinners. Apart from his superb fielding, he was to show others how to cope with the spinners with his superb footwork.
Waqar also briefly joined the PAF when Kardar joined the Air Force and inducted several players in PAF team which included Imtiaz Ahmed, Ghazali, Masood Mehmood, and many others. While Imtaiz continued to serve PAF and retired as a Wing Commander, Pilot Officer Waqar moved on to seek his fortune in business and industry to ultimately emerge as a noteworthy figure both on the national and international level. Waqar, with whom my contacts remained constant when I moved to Karachi and what a helpful friend he turned out to be. Apart from helping me to join the Karachi Golf Club as a regular member, he was most helpful to make my two visits to UK in 1974, and 1975 respectively, with Pakistan Cricket Team possible.
And again in 1979, when I was the only Pakistan working journalist to cover Pakistan cricket tour to New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, he again was most helpful to make it possible for me to cover the tour for eleven national papers with eminence and also appeared regularly both on New Zealand/Australian tv network as the Pakistani expert.
Waqar Hassan also severed the PCB with eminence as Chairman Selection Committee and was always helpful to support cricket and other sports openheartedly. However he had been in difficult health after handing over his entire sprawling business to his only son, Abrar Hassan and gradually became a recluse. God bless him and my deep and sincere condolence to his family, Mrs. Jamila Hassan, son Abrar Hassan, two daughters and also to his younger brother Pervaiz Sajjad, also an eminent former Test Player and a former colleague in PIA, for this precious loss.
