One remarkable performance at The Oval in 1967 elevated Asif Iqbal to hero status and earned him a Wisden Cricketer of the Year award.
Asif Iqbal went on to become one of Pakistan’s greatest all-rounders, scoring 3,575 runs at 38.85, and taking 53 wickets at 28.33 in 58 matches. He also became a key figure in Kent’s successful teams of the early 1970s.
Asif Rasui Iqbal of Pakistan is loose-limbed, athletic, of medium height and has a permanent air of restless energy. Proud, dark and intelligent eyes – he is a graduate in history and economics – miss nothing. To look at him is to sense the unusual – an eager man of deeds and action.
Many fine words and phrases were used in praise of his innings against England at The Oval – that amalgam of pure batting genius and joyous cheek – but it needs his own simple explanation to uncover his character and philosophy.
“I was annoyed,” he says. “Annoyed because I heard that a 20-over exhibition was being arranged to compensate the crowd for the early ending of the Test. Everyone seemed to accept that it was already over. I certainly didn’t. I wanted my team to be spared from taking part in an exhibition. The whole situation made me all the more anxious and determined to succeed.”
As a leader he lost none of his individual freshness, panache and enthusiasm. His players responded to his uncomplicated approach with enthusiasm.
MCC’s visiting players were often astonished at the speed of Asif’s running between the wickets, and, it must be confessed, so too were his own partners, who toiled by as much as the length of the pitch on one interesting occasion! For all that excess of zeal, it was a spirit which uplifted Pakistan’s cricket.
Understandably Asif’s many-sided talents made him the target of several counties as soon as overseas players were permitted in the Championship on immediate registration. Asif chose Kent – to their undisguised gratification.
