Brigadier ‘Gussie’ Hyder managed the Pakistan team that toured England in 1962. He got the job as a result of a scathing report of Pakistan team’s manager on its tour of India in 1961. Dr Jehangir Khan had been the manager and his report confirmed the validity of a Spanish proverb: “Beware the fury of a patient man.”
When Ayub Khan read the report he is said to have made the notation that the players were goondas and in future someone should be sent who would deal with them with an iron-hand or sentiments to that drastic effect. In Ayub Khan’s scheme of things only a military man fitted the bill.
‘Gussie’ Hyder, fortunately or unfortunately, was not the drill-master that Ayub had sought. He was a cheerful, back-slapping type and a most likable man. Players loved him and though he would threaten dire punishment, he would only be beating the naughty floor.
In sports, his forte was polo and he had probably never seen a cricket match. My guess would be that the first cricket match he saw was the one against Worcester, Pakistan’s opening tour match. I would wonder what he would have made of this strange game where the players dressed in white shirts and cream-flannel trousers and for long periods of time nothing appeared to be happening? Cricket creates its own controversies like a country invents an enemy. At that time ‘chucking’ was the flavour of the season. Prior to the tour, a Commonwealth XI had visited Pakistan and Richie Benaud and Colin Cowdrey had been members of the team. I had overheard Benaud telling Cowdrey that the bowling actions of some of the Pakistanis were suspect. I had confronted Benaud and there had been a slanging-match in which I had pointed out to him that he had won a series against England with Meckiff and Rorke and was the last person who should have been talking about suspect actions. But word had spread through cricket’s grapevine and the media in England was waiting, like highwaymen hiding before the ambush.
‘Gussie’ Hyder lived in blissful innocence of this ambush. Crawford White of The Daily Express fired the first salvo when he sought out the manager for an interview. “I am told that some of your bowlers are chuckers?” he had asked in a gentle inquiry and not as an accusation. “What do you mean some? All my bowlers are chuckers and bloody good ones,” the manager had responded. Hyder’s answer completely floored Crawford White. He came up to me and asked me if the manager was for real. “You have met your match,” I told him leaving him completely bewildered. Cricket is a complicated game and there is no crash course available to understanding its nuances. During the Leeds Test Pakistan lost an early wicket and it was nearing the draw of stumps. It was decided to send in Nasim-ul-Ghani as night watchman. The manager wanted to know why he was being sent and he was told and seemed satisfied. Nasim survived and the next morning he was padded up. “Why the hell are you padded up?” the manager wanted to know. “Because I am not-out,” the batsman told him. The manager was perplexed: “You were sent in as the night watchman. A regular batsman should go in,” was the opinion of the manager.
We were playing Glamorgan at Swansea and it was a bitterly cold morning. It had been raining and the start had been delayed. As happens the players were just hanging around, lounging or playing cards. Fazal Mahmood had arrived to join the team and was sitting with the manager. I joined in the conversation. “Why are players just hanging around,” he wanted to know. “They should be on the ground exercising.” He told Fazal to round them and get them to do P.T.I suggested that there was the danger that a player might pull a muscle in the damp, cold weather. “Nonsense. They have to be tough,” he said and so the players were rounded up and they did their P.T. exercises. Obviously with little enthusiasm and much grumbling.
Despite all these gaffes he was a popular manager because at heart he was a very decent and kind man. On tours, the local Pakistani community takes it upon itself to be the custodian of the team’s morals and the manager receives a steady stream of complaints. A player was seen entering a bar, another with a girl in tow and yet another arriving at his hotel late at night. These were seen as trespasses against the good name of Pakistan. ‘Gussie’ Hyder made it clear to the complainants that he was in-charge of discipline and he hadn’t outsourced it to them.
I got on very well with him. I don’t think he was entirely aware that it was an unhappy team and the results were proof of it, a case of ignorance being bliss. But the players did not have a quarrel with the manager, they had a quarrel with one another and ‘Gussie’ Hyder must have heaved a sigh of relief when the tour was over. But he would have been better educated about the game and the games that are played within the game.
I.A. Khan was an altogether different person. He was a senior civil servant and considered himself something of an expert. He managed the 1967 team to England with Hanif Mohammad as the captain. Khan ‘Saab’ had played first-class cricket and I think had been the captain of the Aligarh Muslim University team or one of its stars for whenever he talked about cricket, it was Aligarh that would be his terms of reference. He himself still played club cricket and when posted at Karachi, he would turn up every weekend for the Karachi Gymkhana. As a civil servant, he enjoyed the reputation of being very correct and above board. But he had a soft spot for cricketers and when he had been Chief Controller of Imports and Exports (CCIE) a Test cricketer would manage to get a permit to import a car.
There were no problems on the 1967 tour, and if they were they were handled quietly. I was doing the commentary for BBC and had little to do with the team. There was one occasion at Lord’s when I lost my cool with him. Pakistan was playing Middlesex and Mohammad Ilyas twisted his ankle going for a sharp single. He was carried off and brought to the dressing-room. The ankle was swelling before our eyes and I asked Khan ‘Saab’ whether he had sent for a doctor. “Omar yaar, in our days we would just apply choona and haldi and carry on playing.” This infuriated me and I told him that since Ilyas was a PIA employee I would send for the PIA doctor. Rather than be offended, he thought it was an excellent idea and I duly called up Dr Cowan and he looked after Ilyas.
I.A. Khan was a genuine lover of sports. Apart from cricket, he played tennis until he fell under the spell of golf and that becomes a full-time love affair. He was a thorough gentleman and a man of breeding and learning. His contribution to cricket was huge. Was he an aristocrat with a common touch or a common man with an aristocratic bearing? He was probably neither. But he was a special man and he was commanding without being arrogant. He was a very decent person and for a senior civil servant he had both feet on the ground.
Brigadier ‘Gussie’ Hyder managed the Pakistan team that toured England in 1962. He got the job as a result of a scathing report of Pakistan team’s manager on its tour of India in 1961. Dr Jehangir Khan had been the manager and his report confirmed the validity of a Spanish proverb: “Beware the fury of a patient man.”
