Pakistan’s Zulfiqar Babar was just an 8-year-old schoolboy when Javed Miandad’s six against India in Sharjah’s 1986 final brought victory for his team.
by BIPIN DANI SPORTS
“I didn’t watch that match live on TV, but have seen the highlights of the match and his famous six several times”, the 35-year-old Zulfiqar Babar said hours after his return from the West Indies tour.
Babar, coming into bat at no. 8, in his dream debut Twenty20 match against West Indies, hit the last-ball six and made his team victorious in the last week of July.
“I had no opportunity to speak to Javed from West Indies but will certainly meet him during our preparatory camp to begin after the Eid festivals.Yes, we will exchange the talks about our sixes and I’ll ask him whether he watched the match on tv”, Babar added.
“I will never forget that match. My performance with the ball was also superb”.
Babar captured the three prize wickets of Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels and and Dwayne Bravo in four overs, though he was not awarded the Man of the Match award. .
“Afridi got that award but I have no regrets. Afridi presented the trophy to me”, he added.
“I should give my award to Zulfiqar Babar: he bowled well, fielded well”, Afridi had said at the presentation.
Babar is the second oldest Pakistani to make debut at the age of 35. Only Miran Bakhsh made his Pakistan debut at an age more than Babar’s.
“I started playing seriously the game in 2001″, he said.
Nice gesture
The family gave warm welcome to Babar on his arrival. “We are proud of his performance. Happy for his show in West Indies”, his father, Abdul Gaffar, said. “It was nice gesture on part of Afridi, the player who has hit 400 sixes at the international level. He presented the award to my son”, the proud father added.
Related articles
- Umar Amin, Zulfiqar Babar debut as West Indies bat first (dawn.com)
- Babar’s dream debut earns Pakistan victory (thehindu.com)
Bipin Dani is a Civil Engineer by profession. He is also a senior cricket journalist of India having toured UAE, Sri Lanka, Morocco, Malaysia etc. Contributing for various newspapers in Asia’s four Test playing nations. Contact : geetabipin@hotmail.com
Bipin Dani
He has toured UAE, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Malaysia, to name a few, and contributes to a large number of newspapers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
His twitter bio reads: Eat cricket stories, drink cricket stories, sleep cricket stories.
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