These are words taken from the autobiography of Zaheer Abbas and his gratitude for what life - and cricket - has given him shines through in every page of this hugely enjoyable book.
Those of a certain age will be equally grateful for having seen him at his best, a best that put him up there with the finest cricketers ever to represent Pakistan and one of the most revered overseas players in county cricket history.
It is so refreshing to read of how he loved the county game. It has so many detractors in the modern world, yet he saw it as the ultimate test. The opportunity to play against the greatest players in the world and often to come out on top.
He was a quite magnificent player at his best. Those who saw a lot of county cricket in that period would probably put Barry and Viv Richards at the very top, with Zaheer one of those bubbling in just behind them. Yet it is fair to say he enjoyed the experience more than they appeared to and his enthusiasm for the way of life and his love of England and the county game shines through every page of the book.
Zaheer was a player who loved batting and who would not give it away when he had a hundred to his name. Four times he made a double century and century in the same match and in 1976, his annus mirabilis, he scored over 2500 runs at an average of over 70. He comes over as a fine team man, easy to get on with, less volatile than some of his erstwhile national team mates. Also a man universally admired and enjoyed, which will almost certainly be the case with this book.
It is not the biggest autobiography, coming in at 142 pages plus an excellent statistical section, but I especially appreciated the font size, which together with its writing style made it an easy read.
The Pakistan side of the 1970s positively oozed batting talent. Sadiq and Mushtaq Mohammad, Majid Khan, Asif Iqbal, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad. They would give a great deal for similar players today, but best of them all, for me, was Zaheer Abbas.
For years he graced the county and international game and it was a pleasure to watch him.
I thoroughly enjoyed his autobiography and I'm off to find some footage of the maestro on YouTube.
To paraphrase his own words: I watched the era that was given to me and I remain ever thankful that I saw, among many others, this majestic, magical player.
From A to Zed - A Life in Cricket is written by Zaheer Abbas and published by Fairfield Books
A absolutely brilliant cricket player. I used to love watching him bat. Out of the current crop of Pakistan players I think Azan Awais would do very well in England in red ball cricket. He has a very good simple technique. If Pakistan haven’t got many tests between April and September 2027 I’d be surprised if a county doesn’t sign him for their overseas player
ReplyDeleteZaheer played at a time, when most oversees players were top quality. Even so, I remember him being one of the best.
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