Waqar Hasan

Waqar Hasan (Urdu: وقارحسن‎; 12 September 1932 – 10 February 2020) was a Pakistani cricketer who played in 21 Test matches from 1952 to 1959, and the last surviving member of Pakistan's inaugural Test squad.[1] He scored 1,071 runs in Test cricket, and played in 99 first-class matches.[2]

Waqar Hasan
وقارحسن
Personal information
Full nameWaqar Hasan
Born(1932-09-12)12 September 1932
Amritsar, Punjab, British India
Died10 February 2020(2020-02-10) (aged 87)
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm
RelationsPervez Sajjad (brother)
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 11)16 October 1952 v India
Last Test21 November 1959 v Australia
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches 21 99
Runs scored 1,071 4,741
Batting average 31.50 35.64
100s/50s 1/6 8/27
Top score 189 201*
Balls bowled 6 294
Wickets 0 2
Bowling average – 86.00
5 wickets in innings – 0
10 wickets in match – 0
Best bowling – 1/9
Catches/stumpings 10/– 47/–
Source: Cricinfo, 10 February 2020

Cricket career
Waqar Hasan (left) and Imtiaz Ahmed come out to bat during the Second Test against New Zealand in 1955.

Waqar Hasan attended Government College, Lahore, where he played for the cricket team.[3] He toured England with the Pakistan Eaglets team of young cricketers in 1951.[3]

An "attractive stroke-making right-handed batsman, who was ideal in a crisis",[4] he played in Pakistan's first 18 Tests, including its first five victories. In Pakistan's first Test series, against India in 1952–53, he was the highest scorer on either side, with 357 runs at an average of 44.62, playing several defiant innings when Pakistan were in trouble.[5] He was less successful on the 1954 tour of England, with 103 runs at 14.71, but impressed with his fielding in the covers.[6]

He scored his only Test century against New Zealand in 1955–56 at Lahore, when he made 189 in 430 minutes, adding 309 for the seventh wicket with Imtiaz Ahmed after the score had been 111 for 6.[7] His 189 set a new record for Pakistan's highest Test score which lasted only until Ahmed (who made 209) overtook it the next day.[8] Hasan played five more Tests without reaching 50.[9]

He played first-class cricket in Pakistan from 1949 to 1966, with a highest score of 201 not out for L. W. Cannon's XI against Hasan Mahmood's XI in 1953–54.[10] He captained Karachi Blues to victory in the final of the 1963–64 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy[11] and in his last first-class match he captained them to victory in the 1964–65 competition.[12]

He served as a national selector several times from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was the chief selector when Pakistan beat India 3–0 at home in 1982-83.[3]

Personal life

He married Jamila Razaaq, the daughter of actress Sultana Razaaq, one of the earliest film actresses from India. Jamila is also the granddaughter of India’s first female film director, Fatima Begum,[13] and the niece of Zubeida (the leading actress of India's first talkie film, Alam Ara), who was the younger sister of her mother Sultana.[14]

In 1954 Waqar moved from Lahore to work for the Pakistan Public Works Department in Karachi as a cinema inspector. In the early 1960s he went into business.[3] In 1970, with his partner Abdul Majeed, he took over National Laboratories, a food testing facility, and turned it into the spice-manufacturing company National Foods Limited.[15] In 2002, with the assistance of the cricket journalist Qamar Ahmed, he wrote For Cricket and Country: An Autobiography.[16]

Waqar died aged 87 on 10 February 2020 after suffering from illness for some years. The Pakistan Cricket Board expressed their sorrow, their chairman Ehsan Mani describing Waqar as "not only an outstanding cricketer but a thorough gentleman who set very high standards".[17]

References
  1. "Waqar Hasan, last link to Pakistan's inaugural Test XI, dies at 87". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  2. "Waqar Hasan, last-surviving member of Pakistan's maiden Test XI, passes away at 87". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  3. Chaudhry, Ijaz. "Pakistan's first tour of India was my most memorable". Cricinfo. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  4. Christopher Martin-Jenkins, The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers, Rigby, Adelaide, 1983, p. 479.
  5. Wisden 1953, pp. 872–83.
  6. Wisden 1955, pp. 215–19.
  7. "Pakistan v New Zealand, Lahore 1955–56". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  8. Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, pp. 240–41.
  9. "Waqar Hasan, Test batting by season". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  10. "Hasan Mahmood's XI v L. W. Cannon's XI, 1953–54". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  11. "Karachi Blues v Karachi Whites, 1963–64". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  12. "Karachi Blues v Lahore Greens, 1964–65". CricketArchive. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  13. "Sultana-actress". IMDb.com. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  14. "sultana". Cineplot.com. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  15. "Spicing up Seth's business". The News. 14 June 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  16. Peter Oborne, Wounded Tiger: The History of Cricket in Pakistan, Simon & Schuster, London, 2014, p. 563.
  17. "PCB mourns the passing of Waqar Hasan, the last surviving member of the first Test squad". Pakistan Cricket Board. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
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