..I have not said much about my Cricketing career , except that I have played with Hakim Saeed sahib once..
..The Era in which I played cricket were crazy times , Lillie Thompson, Max Walker , Asif Masoof , Andy Roberts , Bob Willis along with Imran and Sarfraz were craze ..
I was never into bowling , but had this ability to bowl with both arms , and was good at copying styles , so in the practice sessions of our Team I would bowl with both Arms ...and copy the styles of Lillie , Thomspon ..and especially Asif Masood , his long run up , from near the boundary , with a signature one step backward and then coming diagonal and straightening up to fire up the bowl was my favorite ,I was never considered serious bowler maybe because of my copying.., I could also bat with both hands ie Left and Right , but was not much of a batsmen either , and here is the interesting part... though in the Nets I would bowl...but in actual matches I would keep the wickets ,I was good and daring at stopping balls , would stand up some times even to Fast bowlers, I was also into Statistics , so I kept a record of my team ,and my own , ..just yesterday , I found it ... and it amazed me I had more stumping then Catches ..!! in some 80-90 matches , of which I kept record spread over some 3-4 years , I did some over 100-110 Stumping and barely 11-12 catches or may be 20 , was not a good batsman , the highest I scored was some 50-52 runs may be twice.
That was a really crazy time , and I was crazy about playing , I had played along with Amin Lakhani the South Paw who did double hatick [ hatrick in each inning ] against the visiting Indian Team under Bedi , also along with Asif Mohammad the nephew of Hanif and cousin of Shoaib ....I was so crazy then even in the hot sultry May -June , on each Sunday or any holiday , when our team was not playing , I would pick up my kit bag [ my own keeping gloves and pads ] and wander from ground to ground ..and on 99 % of times would find some team Short of a player , especially when they find out that I had my own Kit Bag... I even once went along complete strangers to tour Hyderabad to play a match , unfortunately it rained and we could not play a single ball, ..we slept on footpaths that night , as traveling at nights was dangerous ..
Those were changing times for Karachi as well , in 72 Pakistan broke , then 79 Iranian Revolution , the USSR's Invasion of Afghanistan , ... a lot of influx of Immigrants in Karachi , that changed the entire nature of the city , a city that was once accommodative ....become a killing field .. but on that some other time..
..The Era in which I played cricket were crazy times , Lillie Thompson, Max Walker , Asif Masoof , Andy Roberts , Bob Willis along with Imran and Sarfraz were craze ..
I was never into bowling , but had this ability to bowl with both arms , and was good at copying styles , so in the practice sessions of our Team I would bowl with both Arms ...and copy the styles of Lillie , Thomspon ..and especially Asif Masood , his long run up , from near the boundary , with a signature one step backward and then coming diagonal and straightening up to fire up the bowl was my favorite ,I was never considered serious bowler maybe because of my copying.., I could also bat with both hands ie Left and Right , but was not much of a batsmen either , and here is the interesting part... though in the Nets I would bowl...but in actual matches I would keep the wickets ,I was good and daring at stopping balls , would stand up some times even to Fast bowlers, I was also into Statistics , so I kept a record of my team ,and my own , ..just yesterday , I found it ... and it amazed me I had more stumping then Catches ..!! in some 80-90 matches , of which I kept record spread over some 3-4 years , I did some over 100-110 Stumping and barely 11-12 catches or may be 20 , was not a good batsman , the highest I scored was some 50-52 runs may be twice.
That was a really crazy time , and I was crazy about playing , I had played along with Amin Lakhani the South Paw who did double hatick [ hatrick in each inning ] against the visiting Indian Team under Bedi , also along with Asif Mohammad the nephew of Hanif and cousin of Shoaib ....I was so crazy then even in the hot sultry May -June , on each Sunday or any holiday , when our team was not playing , I would pick up my kit bag [ my own keeping gloves and pads ] and wander from ground to ground ..and on 99 % of times would find some team Short of a player , especially when they find out that I had my own Kit Bag... I even once went along complete strangers to tour Hyderabad to play a match , unfortunately it rained and we could not play a single ball, ..we slept on footpaths that night , as traveling at nights was dangerous ..
Those were changing times for Karachi as well , in 72 Pakistan broke , then 79 Iranian Revolution , the USSR's Invasion of Afghanistan , ... a lot of influx of Immigrants in Karachi , that changed the entire nature of the city , a city that was once accommodative ....become a killing field .. but on that some other time..
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