Abdul Hafeez Kardar

Abdul Hafeez Kardar was a Pakistani cricketer, politician and diplomat. He was the first captain of the Pakistan cricket team. He is one of the only three players to have played Test cricket for both India and Pakistan. He also served as the member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab and remained Punjab Minister for Food under the Bhutto government. He married twice, once to an English woman, Helen Rosemary Hastilow, the daughter of the Warwickshire County Cricket Club chairman Cyril Hastilow ² and also to a Pakistani woman, Shahzadi, sister of Pakistani cricketer Zulfiqar Ahmed. He has at least one son, the economist Shahid Hafeez Kardar. He captained the Pakistan cricket team in its first 23 Test matches from 1952 to 1958, and was later the nation's leading cricket administrator. He is widely regarded as the father figure of Pakistan cricket. He received the Pride of Performance Award from the Government of Pakistan in 1958. He was born in a famous Kardar Arain family of Lahore, Punjab in 1925, and educated at Islamia College, Lahore and University College, Oxford. He played domestic cricket for a variety of teams, including Oxford University, Northern India and Muslims. He was one of the few players of his generation who played for India in Tests against England, and following the independence of India and Pakistan, representing Pakistan. ² Kardar was appointed to lead the team which would play its first official Test series touring India in 1952–53. Kardar fielded his men against Lala Amarnath 's Indian team. Although India won in Delhi and Bombay and won the series, Kardar's Pakistani team achieved their first Test victory in only the second Test in Lucknow. ² He was a left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, scoring 6,832 runs and taking 344 wickets in first-class cricket. He averaged 29.83 in batting, and 24.55 in bowling. ¹ He also had a political career, joining the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1970 and becoming a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1972. He was appointed as the Punjab Minister for Food by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but resigned in 1977 in protest against the rigging of elections by the government. He was also a vocal critic of the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, and was arrested and tortured by the authorities. He later became Pakistan's ambassador to Switzerland, where he died in 1996 at the age of 71. He was buried in Islamabad with full state honours. ²