KARACHI: Late Abdul Lateef Jafri, who expired tragically all alone at his home recently, was a wide-ranging sports reporter-cum-writer and a unique all-rounder in the realm of journalism who will be missed in knowledgeable circles.

His fine grasp over sports specially cricket, hockey, tennis stamped his long-standing career as distinct.

The books he wrote on the history of ‘Pakistan Test Cricket’ and his description of prominent sports personalities in ‘Sporting Sketches’ are, indeed, valuable contributions.

In 1953 Lateef Jafri joined Dawn as a sports correspondent. Two years later he joined Pakistan Standard as sports editor where his talent found full expression in various fields. There, his reporting and reviews reflected wide knowledge and analytical ability.

Late Omar Kureishi, the legendary cricket commentator, acknowledged Mr Jafri’s talent in the sports realm specially, the cricket field. The brief foreword by Mr Kureishi in the book notes that they were colleagues in the Pakistan Standard and that “both of us followed and wrote about cricket with all the passion of a first love.”

Pakistan Standard broke new ground and was the first newspaper to have an entire sports page where Lateef Jafri was in-charge and can rightly claim to be a pioneer.

Mr Jafri was back in Dawn early in 1960 on the news desk as edition-in-charge and later headed the sports wing of Dawn from 1990 to 1998.

His reporting, editing and writings as well as his reviews on major events invested him with a unique distinction in the realm of sports.

According to his senior colleagues in the news room, Lateef Jafri was a perfectionist. As the edition in charge of Dawn, he never allowed language mistakes to go even if it meant delaying the edition. There used to be no compromise on quality.

He used to be particular in matters like punctuation and the use of articles and would not hesitate to delay the handing over of the edition until everything was impeccably put in. No night foreman could persuade him to let the errors go.

He used to be very confident about his grasp of the English language and was always willing to help and assist colleagues who found any problem in the copy.

If a collection of Lateef Jafri’s articles in various sports fields could be put together, it could serve as a guide for youngsters eager to keep alive the tradition he left behind.

— S.A.M.