Yasir Hameed may have played his last limited-overs match in 2007 but he has not given up hope of a Pakistan comeback.
At 37, Hameed does not exactly have time on his side and a contract with the Masters Champions League (MCL), a tournament for retired players, has made it improbable for the opener from Peshawar to don the national colours.
But Hameed, who arrived on the international scene in 2003 with two Test hundreds on debut, believes the revolving door of the Pakistan opener's spot offers him a chance yet.
The first ODI against New Zealand on Monday illustrated Hameed's point, as captain Azhar Ali and partner Ahmed Shehzad failed miserably at the top, scoring 19 off 35 and 13 off 23 respectively.
“I have scored 2000 runs in 56 ODIs. If I’d have been given a chance to play 100 ODIs for Pakistan, I possibly could have gone on to score 4000 runs or 8000 runs in 200 ODIs,” Hameed said in an interview with Dawn.
“I was good at One-Day cricket because I always enjoyed it. I think I still deserve a place in the Pakistan ODI side.”
Hameed had made his ODI bow just a few months before his Test heroics, but his purple patch came a little later in the year. In the September-December 2003 period he had scores of 116, 15, 40, 82, 56, 16, 72, 30, 28, 52, 53, 63, 61, 127. The opponent were Bangladesh (4 matches), South Africa (5 matches) and New Zealand (5 matches). 811 runs in 14 matches seemed like pretty good run and quite a decent first season in international cricket.
Inconsistency in the selection policy and some lazy shot selection did not help his cause and the batsman joined the long list of has-beens.
The lifespan of cricketers has increased in the last decade and Pakistan batsman Rafatullah, who at 39 became the oldest debutant in T20 cricket is a case in point. But comeback at 37 maybe a tougher proposition for Hameed.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), according to the player, demanded that all the players who signed MCL contracts retire from both international and domestic cricket.
“The board also asked us to retire from domestic cricket but strong protest by the MCL players made the PCB change this decision.”
And it's the thought of playing domestic cricket which is keeping Hameed's hopes alive.
“Only time will tell if that is possible or not.”
