From First-Class Cricketer to Cricket Chronicler: Remembering Qamar Ahmed

From a first-class cricketer who dismissed all five Mohammad brothers to one of cricket’s most respected journalists, Qamar Ahmed chronicled the game for nearly five decades, covering more than 400 Test matches and nine World Cups. His passing at 88

Remembering Qamar Ahmed (Image Source: Google)

Pakistan’s veteran cricket journalist Qamar Ahmed passed away in Karachi at the age of 88, from a heart ailment. He was always hailed as the most prolific cricket journalist from Pakistan and in a career of almost five decades, covered more than 400 Tests, 700 ODIs and 9 World Cups, in addition to reporting on various ICC events. Many former cricketers, commentators, and sports journalists, even in India, paid tribute to Qamar Ahmed.

Affectionately called ‘Q’, he was a regular with Pakistan newspaper Dawn and The Cricketer, Pakistan magazine and was also associated with the international media, including BBC World Service and various British and Australian newspapers.

Born in 1937, he migrated at partition and settled down in Karachi. However, cricket forced him to shift to Hyderabad, Sindh and he played 17 first-class matches. He studied in England and this provided him a chance to get associated with the British media and started with the BBC Urdu Service.

He authored many books, including Pakistan Book of Cricket (annual from 1976 to 1998-99), Testing Times, Showdown and Golden Greats of Pakistan Cricket. Since he played at the top level, he knew cricket from the inside and could comment on various aspects of the game.

He was a slow left-arm orthodox spinner and held a unique feat, as he is the only one who dismissed all five Mohammad brothers (Wazir, Hanif, Raees, Mushtaq, and Sadiq) in first class cricket. Famous British cricket historian Peter Oborne, in his mammoth work on Pakistan cricket history, Wounded Tiger, mentioned this feat. One of the most interesting stories discussed from Pakistan cricket is that he dismissed Sadiq, even against his captain Hanif's orders.

He and Mushtaq Mohammad made their first-class debut in the same game (and dismissed each other) and became close friends. He was a contender for a spot in the Pakistan team, particularly for the 1957-58 tour to the Caribbean, but missed as he was not from Lahore and Karachi and was not on the radar of selectors.

His last book ‘Far More than A Game: An Autobiography of a Cricket Writer and Broadcaster’, published in 2020, was his memoir and commented on various issues/events which he saw from close quarters such as Kerry Packer’s WSC, umpiring disputes, the famous pay dispute of 1976-77 which brought professionalism in Pakistan cricket to some extent, Pakistan winning the 1992 World Cup under Imran Khan, the incident during West Indies series in 1992-93, when Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Aaqib Javed were detained for marijuana possession and the 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

No cricket chronicle keeps a record of the number of international cricket matches seen (including played) or covered by a journalist. As per self-counting and publication records, Qamar Ahmed covered more than 400 Test matches. The third Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Sharjah in January 2014, marked his 400th Test as a journalist. Qamar Ahmed was presented a memento by former Pakistan captain Moin Khan on the ground, before the start of the game. A journalist being honoured on the ground during a Test match was a rare event.

At that time, he was only the third (before him: John Woodcock and Richie Benaud) to have covered 400 Tests, meaning he was present in nearly a fifth of all the Test matches played till then.

He also witnessed Sunil Gavaskar’s 10,000th run, Richard Hadlee’s 400th wicket, Anil Kumble’s 10 wickets, cricket’s 1,000th and 2,000th Test.

His name is associated with two more historic events: interviewing Nelson Mandela immediately after his release from prison, and he was in Faisalabad stadium in 1987 when the famous Mike Gatting and Shakoor Rana altercation took place.

Based on his reply to an appreciation, his claim was: He covered 453 Tests, may have seen just over 500 Tests since 1955, 9 Men’s World Cup, 743 Odis, one T20 between England & India at Lord's & 4 Women's World Cup finals. RIP