Published: Oct 21, 2016, 07:44 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 21, 2016, 07:44 PM (IST)
Pakistan cricket team has produced many great cricketers but when it comes to fielders, they are always up in terms of producing worst fielders. Rare of the rarest Pakistan cricketers are known to be excellent fielders. One of the great cricketers from Pakistan, but again a poor fielder, was Mohammad Yousuf. He is known for his stylish batting and his habit of scoring big but before making his international debut, Yousuf ensured that Pakistan were going to get another cricketer with poor fielding skills. Because of his fielding, kids in Pakistan once made fun of him and that too in front of him.
Yousuf revealed this story during his appearance on famous Pakistani show — ‘The Sportsman’ hosted by Wasim Akram. It was Yousuf’s first tour with Pakistan to Bangladesh in January 1998 to play Independence Cup. Yousuf did not get to play in any of the match of the series but in the third and last final of the tournament, he was called as a substitute fielder to field during the match. Bowling first, India conceded 314 runs as Pakistani opener Saeed Anwar played an impressive knock of 140 runs in that match. Ijaz Ahmed also scored century in that One-Day International (ODI).
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According to Yousuf, Anwar has a habit of not coming out for fielding after scoring a ton in a match and in that game, he did so once again. Yousuf came out to field in place of Anwar and dropped a crucial catch. “It was my first experience of playing a match in front of such huge crowd. More than 70-80k people were in the ground. I was standing at mid-on, we had dropped many catches in that ODI and I was one of the culprits. The catch which I dropped was not only a drop but also went for a six. That catch was of Robin Singh. Logically, I should not have been there in the ground but they sent me.”
Robin Singh scored 82-run knock in that match, which led to India’s victory over Pakistan in the final of the tournament by three-wickets. Following that dropped catch, Yousuf explained what were the consequences he had to face and said, “India-Pakistan contest is watched by the entire world, including kids as well. If someone does well in that match, he gets famous or if someone performs poorly, then he too gets famous. I had dropped the catch and Pakistan also lost the match but we lost the match not because of that catch only, but few other mistakes as well. So, when I came back to Pakistan and went out for a walk in the morning, kids were going to school and few of them reacted after seeing me by saying, ‘Yeh wahi hai jisne catch chhora tha (He is the same guy who dropped that catch)’. I said, I have really become popular now.”
Further, in that same year in which he dropped that catch, Yousuf made his international debut by representing Pakistan Test side in February 1998 against South Africa at Durban. A month later, Yousuf made his ODI debut. He played 90 Tests and 288 ODIs in his career, in which he made 7,530 and 9,720 runs respectively.
