Tribute 
 

Well Played,
Waqar Hassan!

By Faizan Usmani | March 2020


It was Friday, September 28, 2018, about 10 a.m., when I and my colleague entered a very large but simple office painted off-white with a hint of beige. Sitting in a classic, tall, high backed wooden chair, the octogenarian gentleman, who was as simple as his ambience, welcomed us with a beaming smile and with a loud ‘Good Morning.’ That warm salutation by Waqar Hassan, Pakistan’s former Test cricketer and the pioneer of National Foods, aptly set the mood for the one-on-one interview with Slogan Magazine for its forthcoming October 2018 issue.

Time goes by very quickly as now, in February 2020, after almost one year and five months since our one and only meeting with him, we are writing about the same person but this time to pay tribute to the late Waqar Hassan.

In a first-class career that spanned about 18 years, Waqar Hassan, a middle-order right-handed batsman, played for the Pakistan cricket team from 1952 to 1959. A key member of Pakistan’s inaugural Test team, Hassan proved himself a consistent performer during his 8-year international Test career, touring and playing against all the leading cricket-playing countries of the period - Australia, England, India and the West Indies.

In his own words, Waqar Hassan deemed himself very lucky as he belonged to a cricket side which had such great names as Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Fazal Mahmood, Imtiaz Ahmad, Khan Muhammad, Hanif Muhammad, Aleem Uddin and many others. Despite the fact that that was the beginning of Pakistan cricket, according to Waqar Hassan, the period can be referred to as the golden period in the country’s sports history. The players were very passionate about keeping the country’s flag flying high through their utmost dedication and hard work and they are still known for living up to the spirit of the gentlemen’s game, staying away from any kind of commercialism or other evils.

“It was my memorable performance against India which brought me overnight fame since I was the top scorer from Pakistan in that series which we unluckily lost by a close margin. At that time we all played clean cricket, won many Test matches and competed at an equal level with those of the already established sides of the world,” he said.

Waqar Hassan recounted in an interview with The Cricket Monthly in November 2012, “It gives me immense satisfaction to have achieved many firsts for Pakistan: first to score a half-century in each innings of a Test against India in 1952-53, first Test half-century in England at Lord’s in 1954, first Test half-century at home, and first to score two half-centuries in a home Test [Dhaka, 1954-55], first century partnership with Hanif Mohammad against India in Bombay in 1952-53, first double-century partnership with Imtiaz Ahmed in Lahore in 1955-56.”

Waqar also served as a national selector, in spells during the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Though he came into the limelight as a specialist right-handed batsman, Waqar Hassan proved to be as a genuine all-rounder in the world of business. He shifted from Lahore to Karachi in 1954 after being offered a job with the Public Works Department. By the early 1960s, he launched a textile machinery business and, in 1970, he co-launched National Foods in partnership with Abdul Majeed.

The reason, as he explained, was financial. “I had lost my regular place in the Test team but my main reason for quitting cricket after the 1959-60 season was financial,” he said. “I opted out at the age of 27 to establish my business. I had seen the likes of Amir Elahi and Wazir Ali living not-so-happy lives in their later years.”

On February 10, Waqar Hassan died in Karachi at the age of 87, bringing an end to a star-studded career both in cricket and in the business world. Well played, Waqar Hassan!

Read More