World A-Team Cricket Forum - View Single Post - Abdul Qadir on leg-spin, cricket and Warne

Maranello

And a cricinfo article on Abdul Qadir by Kamran Abbasi can be read here. Some excerpts below:

Quote:

It was a performance against West Indies that secured his legend. Taking six wickets, he plunged a mighty batting order boasting Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, and Richie Richardson into chaos: all out for 53 on a dusty track in Faisalabad. That was not his only startling performance, for when Qadir cast his spell wickets would tumble like a landslide. His best return was nine wickets, in an innings against England in1987-8 at his home ground of Lahore, helping him to a career total of 236.

It would have been more. But at times, Imran's power of persuasion waned and Qadir was an easy scapegoat, an attacking legspinner who could be expensive. At other times Qadir's strong-headedness lead him into confrontation with colleagues and officials. None the less, ask any Pakistan player of his generation, including Imran and Javed Miandad--ask the man himself--and they will tell you that no legspinner has ever matched Qadir's mastery, not even Warne.

How, then, to explain Warne's superior record? Warne's Australia has been a stronger team than Pakistan were in the 1980s--and that must help. In addition, Warne's genius was quickly acclaimed by his own countrymen and the world, while the petty politics and myopia that engulfs Pakistan cricket meant that Qadir's career was always a struggle. And finally--Qadir, Imran, and Javed would argue this--umpires today are much more sympathetic to the legspinner's art in their decision making than their predecessors ever were.

In the end, though, these are subjective judgements and statistics matter a little but what matters most is the enjoyment that Qadir gave cricket fans. And this was not as a consequence of any flippancy or tomfoolery. Qadir was--and remains--a deeply principled, vastly talented, and intensely dedicated man. Hours of hard work and gallons of passion and devotion to his art created a whirling dervish of a spin bowler.

The love many of us have for his bowling originated with Qadir's own love for the cricket ball, its shape, movement, and possibilities. All of this pleasure from a cricketer who started out as a batsman--whose batsmanship would one day reduce Courtney Walsh to tears--with barely a paisa to rub together. Abdul Qadir was Pakistan's greatest ever legbreak bowler, and by the judgement of his teammates, the greatest ever.