Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan’s first Test captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar and country’s most successful Test batter and 2009 T20 World Cup winning captain Younus Khan have been inducted into the PCB Hall of Fame. The two iconic figures of Pakistan cricket have joined Abdul Qadir, Fazal Mahmood, Hanif Mohammad, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Zaheer Abbas in the illustrious group. Kardar (posthumously) and Younus were inducted following a transparent voting process.

Kardar, born in Lahore on 17th January 1925, played three Tests for India on the 1946 tour of England. Prior to making debut for India, Kardar had represented India’s domestic teams Northern India (1943 and 1945) and Muslims (1944). After partition, Kardar preferred Oxford University (1947-49) and Warwickshire (1948-50) over India. However, when Pakistan became the seventh Test playing nation on 28 July 1952, Kardar was appointed the first captain and led the side in all the 23 Tests he played from 1952 to 1958. Under Kardar’s captaincy, Pakistan achieved an unparalleled distinction of winning a Test in maiden series against all the Test playing nations of the day – India (Lucknow, 1952), England (The Oval, 1954), New Zealand (Karachi, 1955), Australia (Karachi, 1956) and West Indies (Trinidad, 1958). Kardar, an Oxford University graduate who scored 927 runs and took 21 wickets in 26 Tests, also headed the then Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan from 1972-1977. In 1958, he was awarded Pride of Performance, the highest national literary award of Pakistan, while he was posthumously awarded Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the second highest civilian award, in 2013. Kardar passed peacefully in Lahore on 21 April 1996, aged 71.

Younus, who turns 45 next month, featured in third most Tests for Pakistan (118) in which he accumulated most runs for Pakistan (10,099) and 14th most overall in the 145-year history of Test cricket. He averaged 52.05 (18th highest amongst those who have played 50 or more Tests), scored 34 Test centuries (most for Pakistan and sixth most in the world), including six double-centuries (seventh most in the world along with Javed Miandad and five others) and a career-best 313 in February 2009, which subsequently took him to No.1 position in the ICC rankings. Younus also had safe pair of hands, when he held 139 catches (15th most in the world). He also captained Pakistan in 38 international matches, winning 14. In an illustrious career from 2000 to 2017, Younus produced a number of high quality and memorable Test innings. Apart from his 313 versus Sri Lanka, the opposition against whom he had scored a century on debut in Rawalpindi, some of other exceptional Test innings included 91 & 149 not out v New Zealand (Auckland, 2001), 153 & 71 v West Indies (Sharjah, 2002), 267 & 84 not out v India (Bengaluru , 2005), 199 v India (Lahore, 2006), 83 & 194 v India (Faisalabad, 2006), 173 & 41 v England (Headingley, 2006), 35 & 131 not out v South Africa (Dubai, 2010), 200 not out v Bangladesh (Chattogram , 2011), 200 not out v Zimbabwe (Harare 2013), 106 & 103 not out v Australia (Dubai, 2014), 171 not out v Sri Lanka (Pallekele, 2015), 56 & 118 v England (Dubai, 2015), 218 v England (The Oval, 2016) and 175 not out v Australia (Sydney, 2017).

Younus played in four ICC Men’s Cricket World Cups from 2003-2015 and finished his 265-match ODI career with 7,249 runs with seven centuries. In 25 T20Is, Younus scored 442 runs at a strike-rate of 121.42, but he is remembered for inspiring Pakistan to their first world title in 17 years when he lifted the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2009 trophy at Lord’s. Younus won 15 player of the match awards in ODIs against Australia, England, Kenya, Sri Lanka, West Indies (one each), India, Zimbabwe (four each) and South Africa (two). He picked up two player of the match awards in T20Is – against Kenya for his bowling figures of 3-18 and Sri Lanka for his 35-ball 51 in the ICC T20 World Cup 2007. In 2010, Younus was bestowed with the prestigious Pride of Performance award, while he received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz award in 2018. In 2020-21, Younus served the national side as their batting consultant.