I remember this match. I was 12 then and have seen hundreds of other matches since then but this one will always remain the most memorable. Sad that Asif Mujtaba was not able to prolong his promising start to international cricket nevertheless he will be remembered forever for this match

He was not alone in being a failure on international level. Mansoor Akhtar, Rizwan uz Zaman, Zahid Fazal and Ghulam Ali were also in the same category.

Great match. A legend who not many people in Pakistan know about. Good times....

@anees from zaida what qasim umer- opening batsman?

I still remember him.

Apart from this match he batted superbly against australia in 1986 match played in perth when his last wicket stand with Salim Jaffer won the match.

@anees from zaida So, that makes you feel better? What's your point? A cricket team consists of 11 players.. Thousands of other vie for place but only top 11 can get them. Asif Mujtaba couldnt sustain his success at international level (or Mansoor Akhtar, Ghulam Ali etc. for that matter) but they weren't 'failures'. Out of millions who dream of playing 'big cricket' they were the lucky ones who made it to the club, first class and then international level and they should always cherish that experience

at that time running and professionalism were same pathatic as now and then.

What a match it was! The last -ball huge sixer by Mujtaba is still etched in my mind.

mujtaba was pakistan's chanderpaul

Karachi players have been deliberately ignored. players only belongs to panjab are prefered. This not be done more. Is Karachi not a part of Pakistan? The example of Surfaraz and Asad Shafiq and many others is before us.

PCB has been known to mismanage talent. Asif Mujtaba and so many more were not given opportunities to settle in the team, while less deserving players or politically backed ones are back in the team time & again.

The secretary of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA), Ijaz Farooqui, has accused the PCB of deliberately neglecting players from Karachi when selecting the national team. "They have used different ways to overlook them and discard those already in the national team," he told reporters. The KCCA had complained about the non-selection of Karachi players like wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, Danish Kaneria, Khurram Manzoor, Faisal Iqbal and Mohammad Sami - each of whom has represented Pakistan - among others. "Sarfraz did so well and we all were thinking that he will be automatically selected for the longer format but shockingly Mohammad Salman was picked up [for the West Indies tour]," Farooqui said. The PCB issued a show-cause notice to Farooqui over his complaints but he was undeterred. "We will continue to raise our voices in order to provide justice to our players. We wrote letters to the PCB about our reservations over the selection but the board did not pay any attention.

He was a victim of Imran Khan. One of the best batsman Pakistan ever produced but not properly treated by "DICTATOR" type people.

@rauf what about Fawad Alam? Out from the team after remarkable performance before the world cup. Top average in each format.

These days, Asif Mujtaba is my next street neighbor in Dallas, Texas. Still contributing to cricket along with his son to the Dallas/Ft. Worth and USA Cricket. His son is playing cricket locally. Amazing more of that game...

Well, he was from Karachi. So who cares.

I remember it too. Asif was quite underestimated in his tenure, and he played a few great knocks in 90s when bowlers dominated the cricketing world.

Stop bringing Karachi into everything. Asif played at a time of great competition, and perhaps our golden years. Saeed Anwar, Aamir Sohail, Inzimam, Javed Miandad, Rameez were the lynch pins of our team. Who of these would one drop and replace ? Asif was a great player and his tenure just shows the amount of talent and competition that was there at the time.

He was a great fighter but he was not given due consideration by selectors for reason only known to them and now same treatment is ready for Sarfaraz Ahmed (SA). WQ & Misbah and not the board at the end of World Cup announced Azher Ali ( Though not selected for the ODI world Cup team )as the ODI captain just to block SA progress in ODI & test.

@Oz Ramaiz raja was fine ODI player but was useless test player or openor. His time coincided with Shoaib Muhammed who also used to open the inning, still Ramiz got preference over Shoaib just because he was from Lahore and Shoaib from Karachi. Just imagine, Ramaiz played 94 inning and had average of 31 with 2 centuries (one of the lowest average for an opener of test playing country). In comparison, Shoaib played 68 innings and had average 44 with 7 centuries (one of the highest average for a Pakistani opener and similar to top world class openers). So, this is how Pakistan cricket do selection.

I still remember dat match, which i saw wid all of my frnds. Mujtaba is a very capable crktr, but unfortunately he sidelined due to crkt politics, liking or disliking. But i remember one of his another inning, when he hit a six on the last ball to won the match for Pakistan, in S Africa. It was a golden era of Pak Crkt.

Actually the match was drawn if i don't forget..

@shahzad. Look, I'm from kpk, and if you talk of injustice, kpk and balochistan have fire arm fast bowlers always neglected. Riffatullah mohmand made a world record in first class cricket, but never got a chance.. Google him too. There are 11 places from a country of 20 crore people, it's always going to happen until a democratic pcb decides teams.

Talent of Asad Shafiq is wasted just like how Asif Mujtaba's talent was wasted , stop reshuffling his batting order in ODIs !!! the guy averages over 42 in tests batting from no.6 position.

He was not a part of match fixing gang.

I was 16 at that time and I remember the running commentary of this match on radio pak.

@rauf You sound like those sore players who cannot admit their own failures, and want to blame someone else for thrm failing at top level. Javed Miandad was the best batsman Pakistan ever produced, but his nephew faisal iqbal wanted to blame everyone else for the fact that he couldn't bat at the top level! Don't blame regionalism, they have had chances failed and then instead they want more chances. In Australia they would never have had another chance. But rather than accept responsibility for their failures, they want another chance, which of course means that someone else is then denied the opportunity to have a chance.

@shahzad Shoaib mohammed was a failure abroad. Rameez was better able to adapt. Shoaib was a failure at test cricket.

I remember this match. Even commentators had written Pakistan off and he snatched victory from Australia. It was very similar to Salim Malik's Calcutta innings or so many that helped Pakistan win. Asif was one of the best available to Pakistan team at that time but he had very tough competition from the likes of Ijaz, Salim, Rameez and so many talented ones that he could not firm his place in Pakistan team. There could only be 11 players. He can never be called legendary neither Ijaz or Malik or Rameez. Legendary were only few like Fazal Mehmood, Hanif , Imran, Miandad, Zaheer, Akram, Younis, Shoaib, Abdul Qadr. Finally a request, don't make it Karachi Punjab Peshawar issue. Reality is Pakistan always has classes and will have it for a very long time to come and with all these classes justice can not exist.

Many players from Karachi deprived and not given their right on merit, one of 1978 or 1979 a great spinner AMIN LAKHANI came in light Indian Captain Bishan BEEDI said Lakhani was one of the great bowler he was only 16/17 yrs old. But unfortunately he belong to Karachi. 2) when ODI captaincy question came MIsbah/Haroon /Subhan /Waqar they dig 2013 players in light without merit looking to Sarfarz, Asad,Fawad, Anwar they r in line for captaincy. but due to this group no Karachi players given any chance, example is Sarfarz is VC but he have no place in team. Karachi cricket Assoc. President Mr. Farooqi is fighting for the rights Karachi boys.

Mujtaba was great player, but dumped, forgetten, I want to tell u one more story of one of the Baby Cricketer AMIN LAKHANI whom Indian great BEEDI SINGH said one of the best future bowler of world, where is now it is 37 yrs old case, Amin was that time hard 15/17 ytrs , unfortunately he belong to Karachi. Similarly case of Azhar ali no body knows him who is he ? Misbah/Waqar/Haroon/Subhan all from Lahore deprived right person from deserving for captaincy are Sarfarz, Fawad, Asad etc even they should not allow to be part of team. The already targeting Sarfarz VC or player being from karachi and they deprived him but there r no merit for Lahore, until in PCB a power ful ex-cricketer indicated like Rashid Lateef, Sikandar Bakt, Yusuf, Moinn, Shohaib Akhtar. Inzamam, we need good people who r not political but real looking merit.

Many remember this match but perhaps could not get as much fame as others as Pakistan didnt win any cup for that. Secondly that series was one of the most dismal series for Pak where Waqar, Aaqib and Wasim failed to restrict aussies and WI and batting after first match being equalized didnt win match

@anees from zaida Asif Mujtaba was not included in the 1987 Pakistan Teamthat toured India under the leadership of Imran Khan, instead Imran preferred to choose Younus Ahmed. After returning from India tour he openly admitted that it was his biggest mistake to select Younus Ahmed. Regarding Mansoor Akhter, I would say Imran was against Shoeb Mohammed and he wanted to fill Shoeb's position with some one else. That some one else was happened to be Mansoor Akhter.

Actually the example of Ramiz vs Shoaib Mohammed pointed out by Shahzad fits perfect to how politics has plagued Pak Cricket in Imran Khan era and later in 90s. I still don't care much of Ramiz's opinion as he was only an average at best. It's a travesty that in some era players like Imran Farhat gets an unchecked run and in another talents like Asif Mujtaba (and Sarfaraz now) are deliberately ignored.

Great piece. Good Job!

@rauf I am Urdu speaking from Karachi, we are all Pakistani, there are many also in Cricket like Younus, Afridi and many from Kr and being part of the team. We are a nation there are few sick, inside team outside team and in our society from Chitral to Karachi, who always found ways to do and say something on the basis of regions and sect., they are real enemy of this nation doesn't matter wherever they live, in Punjab or Karachi or Quetta.

Almost every player from Karachi have same story. Loads of potential, never given a decent chance!!! PCB only wait for them to fail once and then to drop them. Does anyone remember Shoaib Md, Basit Ali, Asif Kamal, Faisal Iqbal and many more, all of them discarded after few chances. Years from now we might hear similar story about Sarfaraz Ahmad so sad.

@rauf That's just racist. Asif Mujtaba played 25 tests and 66 ODIs and his batting averge in both is around 25. How many more chances you wanted him to be given? Karachi has produced great players no doubt but I do not think that any of them were thrown out of the team just because they were from Karachi and fyi Asad Shafiq and Sarfaraz are regulars in the team.

Asif Mujtaba lives in Dallas-USA and still plays cricket for the local team. He could have been another Javed Miandad or Hanif Mohammad but selectors dropped him repeatedly despite hios excel;lent performance.

One can see both "Salim Malik and Wasim Akram" sitting together, tensed and biting nails in the very last moments, a due that would later become the highlight of the infamous "Justice Qayyum" report.

Here comes the victim card again, as if other parts of country are living in heaven.

@ITOLDYOU, how's the weather in india?

@shahzad Just to add here... whenever Ramiz made a century in ODI pakistan lose that match! why because he took so much time and we were not able to post a competitive total(check his last ODI hundred in WC 92) against WI. It was complteted in last over... :)

Truly a match winner but a sad demise from international scene.

@rauf That is true. It is very unfair that Sarfraz is dropped from the T-20 series against Sri Lanka. In the world-cup early matches he was not given chance. But he showed match winning performance when he had given chance. Have you seen the behavior of biased and arrogant Waqar Younus, when a reporter asked him the question about Sarfraz?

@Optimist Similarly, now biased Waqar Younus doing all his efforts to keep Sarfraz out from the Pakistan team.

I was a teenage cricket buff and was perhaps biggest fan of his in my town when he came India in 1987. Sadly the statistics doesn't say about the kind of talent he was.

@akram: @shahzad Shoaib mohammed was a failure abroad. Rameez was better able to adapt. Shoaib was a failure at test cricket. Actually, it is not your fault, but fault of tasub you have. Shoaib M: Home: 41 (inns) -- 203* (HS) – 50.86 (Ave) – 4 Centuries – Century every 10 inns Away: 27 (inns) -- 163 (HS) –-- 34.96 (Ave) – 3 Centuries – Century every 9 inns Unlike Ramaiz, Shoaib M was an all-rounder and occasionally used to ball: Home 2 wkts @ 49.5 Away 3 wkts @ 23.5 Overall 5 wkts @ 34 and economy 2.57 Ramaiz R: Home: 43 (inns) -- 98 (HS) –--- 33.00 (Ave) – 0 Centuries – No century in 43 inns Away: 51 (inns) -- 122 (HS) –-- 30.88 (Ave) – 2 Centuries – Century every 25 inns Now tell me if there is any comparison between two, as to me, one (Shoaib) is top class test batsman and other (Ramaiz) do not deserve to be in test team.

i also remember this match. The officials had even declared man of the match from Australian 11 before the match had finished. Out of no where, Asif pulled off a miracle. Good memories.

If we will remember our heroes the history will honor us....we should put all these players in school books and give pride to our children so that the children set their roll models.

Merit is always ignored in Pakistan. Please ask Hanif Mohammad,Mushtaque,Miandad,Qasim Umar or Rashid Latif and they will tell the story of nepotism in Pakistan cricket.I wish they write their memoir and publish it now or later but give their heart account.

Asif Mujtaba... is off the mark.

@Pakistani Man Male

Even Waqar Younas was not included in team when Wasim Akram was captain and M/s.Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzak were entered to stop legend bowler W.Y to play for Pakistan. He can achieve more what he done for his country.

For a horrible moment there, I was actually wondering Who was Asif Mujtaba! Horrible, cos I claim to have watched the 90s cricket with fervor and passion. Not so much, in the past decade. Circimstances have taken precedence. OR you simply grow older and find other activities that indulge you or take up or your time, as one would say.