Nazar Mohammad’s name is embedded in the record books and folklore of Pakistan’s Test cricket history. His story is an amazing narrative of both promise and pain, played out against the backdrop of Pakistan’s efforts to establish its credentials as a major cricketing nation.
Nazar was born in Lahore on March 5, 1921, the youngest of five brothers. At birth, his name was registered as Mohammad Nazir. Two of his elder brothers, Sharif and Sultan, were cricketers, with Sharif having represented Northern India in the Ranji Trophy. Another brother, Ferozuddin Ahmed, better known as Feroz Nizami, became a renowned music composer and director. In the music and film world, he was nicknamed the “Ustad of Bombay” and was the person who launched the career of Mohammad Rafi. After the creation of Pakistan, Feroz became one of the pioneers of the new nation’s film industry, producing many popular movies and musical hits. The fifth sibling, Siraj Nizami, was a well-known scholar and writer with a special interest in Sufism.
Nazar was a cricketing child prodigy and first attracted attention when he scored 217 for Islamia High School, Bhaati Gate, against the Sheranwala Gate branch of the same institution. After matriculation, he joined Islamia College, where he established an impressive reputation as a highly skilled opening batsman.
Nazar made his first-class debut in November 1940, when he was selected to play for Northern India in a Ranji Trophy match against the North-West Frontier Province. Due to the relative paucity of first-class cricket played in India at the time, Nazar only played three FC matches in his inaugural season. Interestingly, in the third match, between Northern India and a strong Maharashtra eleven, Nazar’s brother Mohammad Sharif was also in the Northern Indian side. While Nazar was dismissed for just 21, Sharif registered his maiden first-class hundred.
The following year’s Ranji Trophy competition began on a very positive note for Nazar. Playing for Northern India against the NWFP, Nazar and Jagdish Lal opened their team’s innings with a partnership of 273, compiled in just 207 minutes. Nazar went on to score 175 in a huge team total of 613 for 5 declared. Nazar’s brother Sharif also posted a noteworthy 93, and the two siblings shared a 42-run partnership for the fifth wicket. The Northern Indian side was captained by the famous Dr. Jahangir Khan, who also stroked a century. Jagdish’s son Arun Lal would play Test cricket for India many decades later.
Nazar played seven seasons of first-class cricket, from 1940-41 to 1946-47, in undivided India, for teams like Northern India, Muslims, and the North Zone. At the local level, he was a member of the Mamdot Club and played regularly for them at Lahore’s famous Minto Park, now known as Iqbal Park. It was during his playing days at the Minto Park that his name changed from his birth name of Mohammad Nazir to Nazar Mohammad.
First-class cricket in Pakistan started in December 1947. In the inaugural match between Punjab and Sindh, Nazar opened the batting for Punjab with Mian Mohammad Saeed. His knock of 42 helped lay the foundations for a healthy team total of 421, which was enough to set up an innings victory for his side.
When the West Indies toured Pakistan in the winter of 1948 to play an unofficial Test, Nazar was selected for the national side and opened the batting with Imtiaz Ahmed. Their partnership of 148 was the first century stand for Pakistan in representative international cricket.
When Pakistan toured Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) in April 1949, Nazar was an automatic selection for the team. Pakistan won the first unofficial Test comfortably by an innings, with Nazar contributing just 29. However, in the second unofficial Test, Nazar was in scintillating form. In response to Sri Lanka’s score of 298, Nazar and Murawwat Hussain added 269 runs together for the second wicket in Pakistan’s total of 463, with Nazar making 170. Pakistan’s lead of 165 runs enabled the tourists to achieve a 10-wicket win.
Later that year, a Commonwealth team including the likes of Frank Worrell, Bill Alley, and George Tribe played a single international game against the Pakistan team, inflicting a surprisingly comprehensive defeat on them, winning by an innings and 177 runs. Nazar salvaged some pride for the home team by being the top-scorer in both Pakistani innings, with scores of 60 and 31 respectively.
In March 1950, Pakistan played host to Sri Lanka, who were reciprocating Pakistan’s visit to the island a year earlier. Nazar represented Pakistan in one of the two unofficial Tests, sharing a 61-run opening partnership with Imtiaz Ahmed, as Pakistan secured an innings victory over the visitors.
The year 1951 was momentous in the history of Pakistan cricket. The MCC (as touring England national teams were then called) was on a five-Test trip to India and made a three-week detour to Pakistan in November and December to play two unofficial Tests and some side matches. They began the Pakistan leg of their tour with a match against Punjab in Sialkot. Nazar, opening the batting for the home team, made a classic 140. Interestingly, he shared a century stand for the fifth wicket with Ahmed Raza, whose three nephews—Javed Burki, Majid Khan, and Imran Khan—went on to play for Pakistan and captain the national Test team.
In the first unofficial Test against the MCC at Bagh-e-Jinnah in Lahore, Nazar had a new opening partner called Hanif Mohammad. This 16-year-old prodigy was making his first-class debut and helped Nazar put on an opening wicket stand of 96. Nazar made a polished 66, laying a strong base which Pakistan used to run up a total of 428 in reply to the MCC’s 254. As the pitch eased out, the MCC easily overcame this first innings deficit of 174, scoring 368 runs for the loss of just one wicket, and the match ended in a tame draw.
Pakistan won the second unofficial Test at Karachi, opening the door for their entry into the elite group of Test-playing nations.
After acquiring Test status in July 1952, Pakistan set out on a tour of India in the winter of 1952-53 that included five Tests and seven additional first-class matches against zonal and leading local teams. This tour would prove to be the peak of Nazar’s career.
Nazar’s partnership with Hanif at the top of Pakistan’s batting order began to play a key role in Pakistan’s performance. In the opening match of the tour against the North Zone, these two batsmen added 88 runs for the first wicket in Pakistan’s second innings. This drawn match is still remembered as the one in which the 17-year-old Hanif became the youngest player in the world to score a century in each innings of a first-class game.
The next match was the first Test at Delhi, where the Nazar-Hanif pair gave Pakistan a steady start with a stand of 64 runs before Nazar was run out. Though their efforts were unable to save Pakistan from an innings defeat, on a personal level, Nazar managed to establish a few records during this Test. During Pakistan’s first innings, he became the first Pakistani batsman to face a ball in Test cricket and also the batsman who scored Pakistan’s first Test run. Earlier, in India’s first innings, he caught Vijay Manjrekar off the bowling of Amir Elahi, becoming the first Pakistani cricketer to hold a catch in a Test match.
In the second Test at Lucknow, which Pakistan won by an innings, Nazar set up yet more records. He became Pakistan’s first Test centurion, and his knock of 124 not out also made him the first Pakistani batsman to carry his bat through an entire completed Test innings. During this Test, he also became the first ever Test cricketer to stay on the ground for the entire course of a Test match. Nazar’s innings was a masterclass in technique and patience; he reached his century in seven and a half hours and was at the crease for a total of eight hours and thirty-five minutes. His partnership with Hanif yielded another 50-run plus stand, continuing their successful association as openers.
Nazar carried his good vein of form into side games against Mumbai and the South Zone. He scored a fifty against Mumbai and shared an opening partnership of 88 runs with Hanif. Against the South Zone, both Nazar and Hanif scored centuries in a huge opening-wicket partnership of 248.
The fifth and final Test of the series, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, was Nazar’s last Test. He signed off with scores of 55 and 47, and yet another substantial partnership with Hanif, of 94 runs in Pakistan’s first innings. When Nazar was asked to open the bowling for Pakistan in India’s second innings of this match, he also achieved the rare honor of opening both the bowling and batting in the same Test match.
Pakistan’s final first-class match of the tour was against the East Zone at Jamshedpur. This was the last first-class match of Nazar’s career, and he graced the occasion with an innings of 123, bowing out of the game with style and a flourish. Nazar scored a total of 687 first-class runs on this Indian tour at an average of 45.80. His tally included three hundreds.
On returning to Pakistan, Nazar did play another three-day match for the Pakistan Eaglets against Azam Khan’s Eleven. For some reason, this hasn’t been recognized as a first-class game despite both teams having a large number of players of national repute and stature. Nazar scored a century in this match as well.
Just when it seemed that Nazar was at the peak of his powers and would achieve further honors, tragedy struck. It came through an incident that has become an interesting part of cricket history. As the story goes, Nazar would often visit his brother Feroz Nizami at his workplace in the film studios of Lahore. There he met Pakistan’s legendary singer Madam Nur Jahan and they struck up a close friendship or dalliance. Nazar was with the lady in an upstairs hotel room when her husband, Shaukat Husain Rizvi, arrived with a firearm. Nazar made a hasty exit by jumping out of the window, and the fall badly fractured his forearm. There were complications during healing, so that the broken arm ended up shorter than the other, effectively bringing Nazar’s cricketing career to a halt in its very prime.
Nazar was not only a highly skilled, technically gifted batsman but also a superb fielder, especially in the gully area. In fact, he was dubbed “the prince of the gully” by Indian commentators on his tour of India. He could also turn his arm over to bowl leg-spin and googlies as well as medium pace.
Even after the conclusion of his playing career, Nazar stayed engaged with the game. As an umpire, he officiated in 57 first-class matches between 1957 and 1978. He also served as a national coach from 1959 to 1981, with one of his best pupils being his own son Mudassar Nazar.
Mudassar would go on to emulate his father’s feat of carrying his bat through an entire completed Test innings when he made 152 not out versus India at the Gaddafi Stadium in January 1983. This is the only occasion in Test cricket history when a father and son have achieved this distinction.
Nazar Muhammad had three sons and four daughters. The oldest son, Mubashir Nazar, played a few seasons of first-class cricket for the Income Tax department in the late 1970s, while the youngest, Mufassir Nazar, shone in school cricket in Lahore. Mudassar was a regular member of the national side for over ten years, playing 76 Tests for Pakistan. A nephew, Azmat Hussain Nizami, the son of his brother Mohammad Sharif, represented Lahore in a solitary first-class match in 1967-68.
A man of great personal charm and bonhomie, Nazar was also a great raconteur of cricketing stories. He was a gifted singer, too, who after a tiring day’s play would regale his colleagues and friends with his lilting voice. He even recorded a few duets with Madam Nur Jahan but chose to pursue cricket as his preferred career option.
Nazar Mohammad passed away on July 12, 1996, at the age of 75.
*Dr. Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado, and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7,000 books.*
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