Mudassar Nazar

Mudassar Nazar Biography

Mudassar Nazar is a former Pakistani cricketer who played as a solid opening batsman in test cricket and a handy all-rounder in ODI cricket. He had an unmatched characteristic of patience and temperament which were greatly reflected in his game.

Nazar was born on 6 April 1956 in Lahore, Pakistan. He was a right-hand batsman and right arm medium bowler. He was an effective and a successful opening batsman which was incredible given the fact that he was colorblind.

Background

Nazar is the son of former Pakistani cricketer Nazar Mohammad who opened the batting for Pakistan in five test matches in 1952. Mudassar wanted to play cricket since the age of five and by the age of ten, it was clear to him that he wanted to be a test player.

Nazar made his first-class debut in 1971. His temperament as a batsman was appreciated by many when he burst onto the scene. The bowlers in Pakistan domestic circuit used to run in with great intensity and Nazar would meet the ball with a dead bat more often than not.

Debut

Nazar made his international debut for Pakistan against Australia at Adelaide in December 1976. He made a total of 35 runs in the match while opening the batting.

Nazar made his ODI debut against England at Sahiwal in December 1977. He scored 20 runs off 51 balls. In his next match, he scored 33 runs off 55 balls in Sialkot.

Rise to Glory

Nazar, a plodding batsman, showed great grit and character when only in his second test match he played a stern innings facing a staggering 419 balls to reach his maiden test hundred in Lahore against England in Lahore in December 1977.

He created the record for the slowest ever hundred in the history of test cricket and still holds it.

He batted for 591 minutes and ended up scoring 114 runs off 449 balls. The match ended in a draw but Nazar had shown his grit and talent to the world. He was always known to play long innings and played some throughout his career.

Nazar also showed that he could be a pretty handy all-rounder in ODIs. He showed all round game when he scored 285 runs at 31.67 and also picked up 12 wickets at 13.33 in the World Series Cup in 1982.

In August 1982, Nazar earned the title of Golden Arm as he rattled the English batting line up at Lord's in August 1982 picking up a match winning 6/32 in his spell.

He registered his highest test score against arch rival India at Hyderabad, Sind in January 1983, where he batted for a mind-boggling 627 minutes and scored 231 runs off 444 balls and stitched a 451-run partnership with Javed Miandad.

The partnership equaled the world record at that time as Pakistan won by an innings and 119 runs.

Records

In the 76 test matches that he has featured for Pakistan, Nazar has amassed 4114 runs at 38.09 including 10 hundreds and 17 fifties. He has also taken 66 wickets at 38.36.

In the shorter format, he has scored 2653 runs at 25.26 including 16 fifties in the 122 ODIs that he played while also taking 111 wickets at 30.91 in them.

He also became the second Pakistani batsman after his father to take his carry his bat through an innings. He was also the second Pakistani cricketer after Imran Khan and the fifth in the world to reach the ODI double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets.

Retirement

Nazar played his last international match for Pakistan against New Zealand at Hamilton in March 1989. After retirement, he had a stint as a coach with Pakistan before coaching Kenya in 2005.

He also served as director of Pakistan's National Cricket Academy.