No more there the Little Master

Hanif Mohammad, the legend of the cricket world who would usually win, lost one last match Thursday evening and has returned to the pavilion. Not that he would give up; given his grit and determination to stay at the crease which earned him the epithet of Little Master, died, revived and then died. After his heart stopped beating and was declared dead it revived beating for some more time and then bowed out of the game for all times to come when death laid its icy hand on his pulse. Hanif Mohammad was born in Junagadh, now in India, to a regional badminton champion mother, and migrated to Pakistan in 1947. He opened his sports career as a schoolboy for Pakistan's first Test against India in New Delhi in 1952. His four brothers too played international cricket, but what he achieved remains a lasting national pride and a world record - he hit a still unbeaten record of 337 in a marathon 970-minute stay at crease against the then mighty West Indies in Barbados in 1958. Remember, Hanif was wearing no helmet! His forte was both natural and acquired. Given his concentration he would not miss the ball whatever may be its height and speed. At times he would appear to be mechanical, but at the end of the day he would still be on the crease to the utter despair of the adversary. And if he was the most formidable batsman abroad who played an iconic triple-century he was no less glorious at home. The very next year, in 1953, he scored record-setting 499 for Karachi against Bahawalpur in the first class cricket - only to be overtaken 35 years later by a sliver of two runs by West Indian Brian Lara. He was a textbook cricketer, whose lesson was that cricket is not merely a game of chance - stand at the crease, focus on the ball and deal with it strictly in accordance with merit. If anybody set the stage for Pakistan to play international cricket it was Hanif Mohammad. As the opening batsman he would invariably set the pace by piling up almost huge score. Perhaps, that is no more in today's national cricket. His passion for cricket did not subside after retirement from the active cricket. He contributed to the national game in a variety of ways.