HASEEB Ahsan was the subcontinent’s best spinner in the early 1960s. He passed away on March 8 at the age of 73.

He was a great exponent of the art of off-spin bowling and could spin the ball like a top and turn it even on dead wickets.

Such was his class that the late Fazal Mahmood wrote in his autobiography: “Haseeb Ahsan was a good off-spinner in the Pakistan team that toured the West Indies in 1958. Even Everton Weeks had a lot of praise for him. After the West Indies tour Haseeb played league cricket in England. He also toured India in 1960-61 where he bowled exceptionally well. Even his critics could not fault his bowling action, but on the England tour in 1962 he was dubbed as a ‘chucker’. Neither the captain of the team nor the BCCP took a stand in Haseeb’s favour. Their inaction ruined the career of the very fine bowler. Compared to Sri Lanka’s Muralitharan, Haseeb’s action was far cleaner and more correct. He was better than Murli in the art of spin bowling. The difference was that Haseeb bowled with speed, and his fingers and a spin worked more than Murli’s.”

Born at Peshawar on July 15, 1939, Haseeb made his test debut against the West Indies in 1957-58 and in a career spanning over five years (1957-58 to 1961-62) appeared in 12 tests, four versus West Indies, one versus Australia, five versus India and two versus England.

He claimed 27 wickets at an average of 49.25 against India in 1960-61 (five for 121 at Kanpur and six for 202 at Madras). Incidentally at Madras he also created a record of marathon bowling and bowled 84 overs in the Indian innings, which is the 7th number of overs bowled by a bowler in an innings in test cricket. Haseeb had also bagged 242 first class wickets while representing Karachi, PIA and Peshawar. He had bowled his career best for Peshawar in the 1958-59 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy series, claiming eight Punjab B wickets for 23 runs with match figures of 13 for 47.

Haseeb’s best series was against India in 1960-61, where he claimed 15 wickets and emerged as the best bowler from either side.

It was an irony of fate that Haseeb’s career met with a sudden, tragic and premature end at the start of the Pakistan cricket team’s tour of England in 1962 due to suspect action and foot injury, though he was being considered as a potential threat to the home team and had already proved so with a promising start in the very first match of the tour against Worcestershire County, claiming five for 53.

Haseeb later also served Pakistan cricket as chief selector, director 1987 World Cup committee, and manager of the Pakistan team on tour of England in 1987.

ARSHAD CHUGHTAI Lahore