Daily Times

LAHORE: Former Pakistan cricketer Talat Ali Mlik, also known as TAM, celebrates his birthday on May 29, Saturday (today). He was born in 1950 in Lahore. He was a right-hand opening batsman, occasional right-arm medium bowler, and a useful close-in fielder. TAM played for Pakistan from 1972 to 1979. He also served as ICC Match Referee for a couple of years as well as the manager of the Pakistan cricket team. TAM was a dogged opener who got his Test career off to a traumatic start when he fractured his thumb on debut, facing Dennis Lillee at Adelaide in 1972-73. In the 1970s, TAM was one of the most sought after players for an opening batsman role in Test matches. He did appear in 10 Test matches for the country and unfortunately never played a one-day international for Pakistan. But Tests were spread over seven seasons, he was at times plagued by injury problems and poor form and eventually only had a modest career record. From 1972-73 to 1978-79, his contribution in 10 Tests, in which he just managed to score 370 runs at a meager average of 23.12 with a highest of 61, while he made two half-centuries. TAM held four catches as a fieldsman and had bowling figures of 0-7. He played his first-class cricket from 1967-68 to 1978-79 for Lahore, Punjab University, Habib Bank Limited, and Pakistan International Airlines. After saying goodbye to cricket, he decided to concentrate on his job with PIA at the age of 29. For several years, he was posted in the sales office in Manchester, England, taking time off to serve as an ICC Match Referee from 1997 to 2001. He performed this duty in 10 Test matches in West Indies, Sri Lanka, and England and was match referee in 26 one-day Internationals in West Indies, Sharjah, New Zealand, England (including World Cup 1999) and South Africa. TAM lives in England with his family.