KARACHI: When Sarfraz Ahmed, Pakistan’s former captain, took to the pitch of the Jinnah Government College cricket ground years ago during his student life, the outfield was dusty and uneven. He batted on a cemented wicket, conditions so poor that spectators would park their motorcycles beyond the boundary ropes and sit on them to watch the action.

Sarfraz remains the most high profile cricketer the college has produced. The man who led Pakistan to the Champions Trophy in 2017, and staged a Test comeback earlier this year, forged a career playing on an inadequate college ground. As did his college and eventual Pakistan team-mate Anwar Ali. In 2006, the duo were part of the Pakistan side that won the U-19 World Cup; Sarfraz the skipper and fast bowler Anwar the player-of-the-final.

“I played club level as well as college-level matches from 2003-2004 in the college ground,” Sarfraz told Dawn. “And I will always remember the role this ground played in my career even through its condition was deplorable.” Not anymore though.

The ground has been transformed, now sporting a lush green outfield and a turf pitch. A boundary wall has been erected with proper sitting arrangements now in place for those who want to witness the action.

“There’s a very different feel now,” reflected Anwar, while talking to Dawn. “We played for our college whenever we got the opportunity but during our time here, there wasn’t even a dugout for the players, let alone a dressing room.”

It was due to the efforts of the college’s Director Physical Education, Professor Wasim Majid Rizvi, that the ground has been revived. Prof Rizvi told Dawn that he’d been trying to get the ground restoration approved by the government for the best part of a decade.

“I joined the college in 1992 and noticed that the cricket ground was the largest in any of the educational institutions in Karachi,” said Prof Rizvi. “That was my motivation to develop it as there were better grounds in other institutions.

“Then, our cricket team had been dominating the Inter-College tournaments so why not give them facilities to do even better,” he added, noting that apart from Sarfraz and Anwar, other former Pakistan Test cricketers namely Saleem Yousuf, Hasan Raza and Mohsin Hamid had also featured for the college’s cricket team.

“The college has a legacy of producing good cricketer,” notes Professor Tariq Salahuddin, who heads the sports committee at Jinnah College and had been actively involved in the construction work at the cricket ground. The restoration work has cost Rs40million but Prof Tariq believes that it will pay off with the emergence of cricket talent.

Earlier this year, Jinnah College won the Pakistan event of Red Bull Campus Cricket and are now set to represent the country at the world finals for a third time, having also triumphed in the nationals in 2015 and 2017. On both occasions, the team couldn’t go far, their only win at the world finals coming in 2017.

But the difference this time around is the fact that the team has a proper ground to prepare for the world finals.

“The college’s ground is helping us a lot now during our training and practice sessions,” Fahdis Bukhari, the captain of Jinnah College’s present side, told Dawn. “Now we can practice regularly and through proper training we would increase our strength and hopefully put up a winning show at the world finals.”

For the college’s illustrious alumnus like Sarfraz, the new facility should be a springboard for greater success.

“I hope that the ground is maintained in the future so that new players from college teams can play here and benefit from it,” said Sarfraz.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023