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Javed Burki: How did the general's son become the captain of the Pakistani cricket team? |
The Pakistan cricket team's tour of England in 1962 is remembered as one of the most disappointing in the history of Pakistani cricket in terms of performance.
The captain of the Pakistani cricket team was Javed Burki. Pakistan lost the five-match Test series 4-0.
The unsatisfactory performance of the players and the unfitness of the fast bowlers were cited as the common reasons for the defeat but there were some things that happened before the tour which proved to be a prelude to the team's performance in the tour.
When the Pakistani cricket team returned from a tour of India in 1961, a report came out from the team's manager, Dr. Jahangir Khan, in which captain Fazal Mahmood was not mentioned in good words.
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In the same year, when the England team led by Ted Dexter came to Pakistan, the Pakistan Cricket Board handed over the leadership to Imtiaz Ahmed. But as the tour of England approached, surprisingly, in the presence of senior cricketers Hanif Mohammad and Imtiaz Ahmed, the lot was drawn for Javed Burki, a young cricketer at the age of 24, who played only eight Test matches. Were
In an interview, Javed Burki had said that Imtiaz Ahmed, Hanif Mohammad and he had been called for a meeting by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
He added that almost all the members of the selection committee were senior bureaucrats who decided to lead the team as he was a junior civil servant himself so it was not possible for him to refuse.
He also justified his captaincy by saying that he was playing for Oxford University, so the Pakistan Cricket Board thought his experience would be useful to the team.
Javed Burki's father, Lt. Gen. Wajid Ali Burki, was a trusted ally of former President Ayub Khan. The history books record that General Wajid Ali Burki was among the three military generals who signed a pre-prepared resignation from President Sikandar Mirza.
High-level phone call captaincy?
Fazal Mahmood has mentioned in detail in his book 'From Disc to Dawn' that Javed Burki was given the captaincy and claimed that Javed Burki was given the captaincy due to orders from above.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Fazal Mahmood writes in his book that one day he was sitting in his office when a phone call came. The operator said, "Mr. Fazal, I am listening to you, but you will listen quietly, you will not say anything, otherwise I will lose my job."
Fazal Mehmood writes, “The telephone conversation that this man had with me after that was between the then head of the ad hoc committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Justice AR Cornellius and a senior official. In it, he was telling senior officer Justice Cornelius that what we are talking about is that you have to make him the captain of the Pakistani team.
"Justice Cornelius replied: Sir, don't worry."
The voice came. What will happen to Fazal Mahmood? We will take care of the answer given.
Fazal Mahmood further wrote in his book that his blood boiled after hearing this conversation and he could not sleep for many nights.
Fazal Mehmood has written that when the Pakistani team suffered a series of defeats during the tour of England, voices were raised all over the country to send them to England. Newspaper columns and articles were written. At first, the cricket board did not pay attention to him, but then one day he received a message that the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Justice Cornelius, wanted to meet him.
So they met him in his chambers in the Supreme Court. Justice Cornelius was also the Chief Justice of Pakistan at that time.
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According to Fazal Mahmood, when Justice Cornellius asked him to go to England and join the team, he was surprised because he had assured the top officials to keep him away from cricket and now he has asked him to join the team. I was requesting to join.
Fazal Mahmood wrote, "He replied that he is not in practice so it is not possible for him. Justice Cornelius was very embarrassed and he apologized to him and said that you should save the Pakistani team from defeat.
What Fazal Mahmood has written about Justice Cornelius in his book is also astonishing because Justice Cornelius is generally remembered as a principled man.
What happened on the tour of England?
Fazal Mahmood has written in his book that he arrived in England a few days before the fourth Test match. He wrote that the Pakistani team had lost three Tests in a row but Javed Burki's attitude towards him was not good.
Fazal Mahmood says that in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, he bowled a long bowling spell for 60 overs and took three wickets for 130 runs, but whenever he asked Javed Burki to set the field of his choice, he refused. done.
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On the other hand, Javed Burki in an interview termed the decision to send Fazal Mahmood to England as wrong and said that the team management wanted to call fast bowler Bashir Haider to England.
"But he was sent to Fazal Mahmood, who had lost his influence by then."
Javed Burki used the word slow medium league sniper for Fazal Mahmood in this interview.
Fazal Mahmood bowled 49 overs and took two wickets for 192 runs in the fifth and final Test of the Oval. It was the same Oval Ground where he took twelve wickets in the 1954 Test to lead Pakistan to a historic victory.
But there was a clear difference between then and now.
This time neither Pakistan won nor the spectators gathered under the balcony of the Oval to whose enthusiastic slogans Fazal Mahmood would respond by waving his hand.
Thus, Fazal Mahmood quietly said goodbye to the world of cricket.
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