Book & Author
Javed Miandad: Cutting Edge — My Autobiography
By Dr Ahmed S. Khan
Chicago, IL
“If I have to choose a batsman to bat for my life, it would be Miandad.” — Viv Richards, West Indies Batting Legend
Javed Miandad is one of the greatest cricketers and one of the best batsmen to have played for Pakistan. His accomplishments are amazing! He scored most runs for Pakistan in Tests (8,832 runs in 124 Tests at an average of 52.57) before Younis Khan surpassed his record and became the first Pakistani batsman to score 10,000 runs in Tests. He also scored 7,381 runs in 233 ODIs.
For the 34 Tests he captained as the youngest skipper of Pakistan, he won 14 and lost just 6. In first-class cricket he scored 28,663 runs (average 53.37) in 402 matches, with 80 centuries, 138 fifties, and highest score of 311. In first-class county cricket, playing for Sussex and Glamorgan, he scored 9,042 runs in 123 matches, with 24 centuries and 44 fifties.
Javed Miandad is a radiant icon of cricket and one of the best cricketing brains in the game. Javed’s collaboration — on and off the field — with Imran evolved into a dynamic duo who could devise winning strategies against tough opponents. Once upon a time, cricket used to be a gentleman’s game, but infusion of mega money, power and politics have attenuated the character and beauty of cricket. Nowadays match-fixing has become synonymous with cricket matches.
There was a time when cricketers had a strong character, and true patriotic spirit. Viv Richards, former West Indies captain and batting legend, reflecting on the patriotic spirit has observed: “Imran and Miandad are two of the most patriotic individuals I have met, and I can identify with that. I am quite certain you wouldn't be hearing stories about match-fixing and other bad things if they were at the helm. Both would die for their country.” Javed has observed: “ As far as I was concerned, cricket was war, and I was at war whenever I played.”
CUTTING EDGE is the autobiography of Javed Miandad — the genius cricketer —who took the cricket world by storm when he made his debut in international cricket in 1976-77. For more than two decades he dominated the batting lineup for Pakistan and in the process compiled one of cricket’s greatest batting résumés. His contributions helped Pakistan transform into a winning side that stood at par with the best teams of the world at the time. His batting performance in the 1992 World Cup helped Pakistan win the title. He coached and guided Pakistan to famous test victories in India.
In a simple but engaging manner, Javed Miandad in collaboration with Dr Saad Shafqat, tells his story in 23 chapters, revealing his struggles, accomplishments, controversies and sufferings due to injustices through various phases of his cricketing career — starting from the streets of Karachi to reaching zenith of his career and playing at major test centers of the world — and in the process emerging as a great batting legend who helped Pakistan become one of the best teams of the world.
Javed vividly remembers details of all matches played in Pakistan and all over the world. At nineteen, he scored a debut hundred against New Zealand (1976), and then in the third Test he became Test cricket's youngest double centurion. In 1986 at Sharjah against India, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by hitting a six on the very last ball — when four runs were required to win — and became a hero for Pakistan. His last-ball six at Sharjah had a profound effect on the psyche of the Indian team who got dominated by Pakistan for the next decade and a half.
Reflecting on the implications of his historic feat, Javed observes: “ My last-ball six in the final of the Australasia Cup in Sharjah in 1986 to beat India, changed the game in a way. Teams, officials, players and, most importantly fans, all started to believe in the format and its potential. Now players would fight till the very last ball was bowled knowing they could triumph at the very last instant. Fans knew likewise that every game was alive until the last ball was bowled.”
Javed played a key role — on and off the field with his superb performance and advice on strategies — in Pakistan's 1992 World Cup victory. There are accounts of controversies too; he recalls Dennis Lillie, who kicked him, and Javed tried to hit him with the bat. Javed recalls: “I don't think Dennis or any other Australians had expected to see a Pakistani player like me who simply refused to back down...We were after all only from Pakistan and he felt he could take liberties with us. Had I been captain of England, I wonder if the idea of retaliating with a kick on the pads would even have entered Dennis' mind.”
He describes in detail how Imran Khan engineered a revolt by young cricketers to oust Javed from captaincy. Javed has dedicated one full chapter to his relationship with Imran Khan. Javed recalls he was batting on 280 and was very much in sight of Test cricket’s highest score, but Imran Khan declared the innings leaving Javed very disappointed and upset with Imran. The last few years of Javed’s career were marred by a back injury, conflicts with administrators and tiffs with captain Wasim Akram, who was later accused of fixing matches but was handed a very light punishment by Justice Malik M. Qayyum (who had a soft corner for Wasim Akram) in a very controversial judgment!
In the foreword, England Captain Tony Greig, paying tributes to Javed Miandad, writes: “It is not easy to do adequate justice to the cricket career of Javed Miandad. Let us, in the first instance, study his figures. Javed's batting average and strike rate are exceptional—there are only seven other test cricketers, Donald Bradman, Len Hutton, Walter Hammond, Ken Barrington, Gary Sobers, Greg Chappell and Sachin Tendulkar who have averaged over 52 and scored over 8,000 Test runs. Now, that is a very exclusive group! One should also consider his contribution on and off the field—he has captained and coached his country with distinction. Then there are the special moments in Javed's career of which there are too many to document here but include the endless occasions when Javed stamped his class and sense of adventure on the game we love so much. As far as I am concerned, it is his all-encompassing sense of enthusiasm and fun that sets Javed Miandad apart from any other player. In my capacity as Sussex captain, I was charged with the responsibility of seeing to it that my county had the best possible overseas players. I wanted the two best available fast bowlers and the two best young batsmen in world cricket. I think I achieved that with Javed and Kepler Wessels—they were by far the two best young batsmen around at the time and Imran and Garth Le Roux, the two best available fast bowlers. I am not going to dwell on the talent that Javed displayed on the field because we all know he was a great player. It was his attitude to the game and for that matter, to life itself, that I just loved. He was positive and aggressive in his approach and the tougher the situation the more he seemed to revel in the challenge. His enthusiasm was extremely infectious which made him one of the best team men I have ever had the pleasure to play with or against. During his time with Sussex, he was the one Sussex player my young kids wanted, more than the rest put together, to be with…I do not think there could ever have been a cricketer with a better temperament. Thanks mate, for your friendship. For me, it has been a privilege to have crossed your path. May the rest of your journey bring you ongoing good health, happiness and more of that wonderful Javed Miandad sense of adventure and fun.”
Reflecting on his early life, Javed writes: “As far back as I can remember, I have been crazy about cricket. My father loved cricket and he passed that love on to his sons…My family comes originally from India…In 1947, my parents joined the wave of immigrants from India that accompanied the end of British rule and the creation of Pakistan. They made their new home in Karachi, the sleepy port town that was destined to become the young country's nerve center. I was born in Karachi ten years later, on 12 June 1957.”
Recalling his entry to national and international cricket, Javed states: “At the start of the next season, 1974-75, I was seventeen years old. I had now begun to dream about playing for my country... As captain of the Sindh Under-19 team, I had led my side to the final of Pakistan's National Under-19 tournament. Predictably, we were going to meet Punjab in the final, to be played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, in late November 1974... That match went well for me…At the end of that match on that late November day in 1974, the president summoned me...face to face with Mr Kardar…[He] was brief yet highly effective. `Well played and keep it up,' he told me... The next day, a statement from Kardar appeared in the newspapers in which he had called me the 'find of the decade.' …. In the following two years —1975 and 1976—I would make my One-Day International debut for Pakistan in the inaugural cricket World Cup, win a contract from Sussex to play in the English county championship, and then finally play my first Test for Pakistan.”
In the Chapter titled “Imran and I,” Javed observes: ‘Victory in the 1992 World Cup was a glorious accomplishment for Pakistan. It was also the crowning achievement in my long association with Imran. I was fortunate to have seen Pakistan become a world-class team during my playing career; it would not have been possible without Imran…Imran is no ordinary cricketer; he is one of cricketing history greatest…He was also, at least in my experience, a listening captain. I would be in regular consultation with him on the field and he always considered what I had to say. He was, most of all, a very demanding captain…There were occasions when I felt Imran was wrong and I feared that his intransigence was going to cost us a match. At times like these, I knew I just had to get my way—and I did. The best example of a situation like this was before the Bangalore Test against India in 1986-87, when Imran had made up his mind to play Abdul Qadir rather than Iqbal Qasim. I knew that Qasim would be far more effective on that track, and urged Imran to change his mind. It became a testy exchange and I finally ended up invoking God and country before Imran relented.”
Reflecting on his love for Pakistan, Javed states: “It is hard for me to explain what Pakistan means to me. Pakistan is in my blood. It is my identity and I have always felt great honor in representing that identity. I love Pakistan and am deeply grateful to it, the country that gave me the opportunity to make something of myself. If ever I was struggling out in the middle, pushing for victory or staving off defeat, the sight of the Pakistan flag fluttering defiantly would warm my heart and keep me going…Everything I have done in cricket, I have done for Pakistan.”
Describing his faith in God, Javed observes: “Faith in Allah has been my ultimate source of strength in life and in cricket…If I have achieved anything in life, it is only because Allah has willed it. If I have got anywhere, it is only because Allah has heard the pleas of my well-wishers, of my elders, my family, my friends, my fans, all those who have been kind enough to include me in their prayers…Today I am a content person because I do not believe I have ever been unjust to anyone or knowingly committed a wrong. My intentions and my heart have always been clean. This, to me, is the simple recipe for life-long happiness.”
Recalling Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, Javed writes: “Cricket originated in England, but I think it is fair to say that modern cricket has originated in Australia…of the things we now take for granted in international cricket—colored clothing, white balls, floodlights, portable wickets—were all introduced by World Series Cricket…Kerry Packer and I used to get along really well. I was the youngest player in World Series Cricket, and I used to call him `uncle,' which he found really amusing. Tony Greig, who was like an elder brother to me, was Packer's right-hand man in the cricket set-up…I enjoyed a great sense of belonging in World Series Cricket…Ultimately, Kerry Packer's great contribution has been to modernize the game.”
Reflecting on the “Oxbridge Complex,” a superiority complex portrayed by certain Oxford and Cambridge educated players, Javed states: “There has been a tendency in Pakistan cricket in which players with an Oxford or Cambridge background have been overvalued, and players far removed from such a background have been undervalued. It is an injustice that was part of our cricket from the earliest days, and was kept alive well into my playing years…I know that one of the criticisms against my captaincy had been that I lacked a complete education and didn't have a college degree. This was an irrelevant argument because I was extremely well educated in cricket. If some university awarded degrees in cricket, I would qualify for a PhD without much difficulty…”
On state of PCB affairs, Javed observes: “The way the Pakistan Cricket Board's [PCB] affairs have been managed up till now, with politically motivated appointments of office-bearers and terms of office that start and end abruptly on the whims of government ministers and bureaucrats, it is remarkable that the country has been successful at cricket at all.”
Reflecting on the future, Javed expounds: “I have devoted my life to cricket, and I want to continue to do so as long as my physical capacities will allow. One of my dreams is to one day set up a cricket academy that will continue to help Pakistan realize its true potential in world cricket… I feel that I have come to know and understand a thing or two about the game, and I would like nothing better than to pass this on to receptive young talent. I like to think I can help talented youngsters make the most of their cricket abilities and to go on to make a lasting impression on the game. It would be a contribution to cricket that I would be extremely proud of.”
Today the status of Pakistan cricket is in an attenuating state due to the appointment of inept people at key positions. Javed Miandad is a national asset with a high caliber cricketing brain and rich experience; it is very unfortunate that his expertise is not being sought for the betterment of Pakistan cricket!
Miandad, one of the great batsmen, considers Sunil Gavaskar and Viv Richards as his favorite batsmen. Cricket fans all over the globe continue to miss and admire Javed Miandad’s gallant brand of cricket. An Irish band “ The Duckworth Lewis Method” has even composed a song titled “Meeting Mr Miandad” as a tribute to Javed Miandad (Its available on youtube at weblink: https://youtu.be/t3JA-417V_M ).
CUTTING EDGE — My Autobiography chronicles Javed Miandad’s struggles and accomplishments to become one of the greatest cricketers, and how politics cut his career short and denied him opportunities to serve his country. His admirers around the globe will find this book an enjoyable read.
(Dr Ahmed S. Khan - dr.a.s.khan@ieee.org - is a Fulbright Specialist Scholar.)
