Just batty
Latif recalls spending afternoons hanging out at Bagh-e-Jinnah, snapping shots of cricketers playing and chatting.
“You have to be a little mad to try something like this,” says Najum Latif. ‘This’ is setting up a one of a kind museum devoted to cricketing paraphernalia. And Latif certainly is mad…mad about cricket that is!
The cricket museum he has so lovingly established at the 1880 pavilion at Bagh-e-Jinnah accommodates an array of objects: personal belongings of legendary cricketers, signed bats and balls, pictures documenting the early 20th century cricketing history of the subcontinent.
The 20 by 25 feet space was formerly a dining area in the historical Bagh-e-Jinnah cricket ground, which has the distinction of being the second cricket ground to be built in what was then India under the Raj, the first being the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. It remained the only official cricket ground in Lahore until Gaddafi Stadium was made in 1959.
Latif recalls spending afternoons hanging out at the Bagh-e-Jinnah in the 1950s, snapping shots of cricketers playing and chatting. Many pictures displayed at the museum are from his own collection.
Up until the 1970s, this space used to be a dining hall. “This is where the cricketers bonded and made friends during lunch and tea breaks,” recounts Latif fondly.
Pictures of English cricketers from the 18th and 19th century used to be mounted on the walls. During matches, pictures of the guest team were exhibited on the right wall, while the home team had its pictures on the left.
But on his return to Pakistan in 2002, Latif found that the space was being used as a store and all those historic pictures had been lost to termites, rainfall, and theft. Concerned that a significant era of our cricket heritage was being lost, Latif pushed for a proposal to establish a museum and was finally given approval by Haider Rizvi, the then Lahore Gymkhana convener. The museum was officially inaugurated in November 2009 by Nawaz Sharif.
Now the honorary curator of the museum, Latif talks about the difficulty of acquiring artifacts from families of former cricketers. “Until his death in 2005, Fazal Mahmood [one of the finest fast bowlers of the country’s early years and a former captain of the national team] was a guiding force to me. He referred me to the right people for acquiring things for the museum,” says Latif.
Eventually, most post-Pakistan pictures came from Mehmood Salahuddin, who assisted the English team during their first official visit to Pakistan, and Dr Farakh Ahmad, a first-class cricket player, also from Imran Khan’s family.
The vast array of objects at the museum is a testament to Latif’s efforts. Visitors to the place can see a bat Majid Khan used in 1986, Imran Khan’s trousers from the 1992 World Cup, Salim Malik’s signed shirt and cap, and retired international umpire Iftikhar Ahmad’s jacket. Amongst the first things Latif acquired for the museum were pictures of the first official test match played between India and Pakistan in 1955. Then he got pictures of the maharajas of Patiala and Jammu Kashmir playing cricket here in the 1920s and 1930s. “These pictures are a link between the history of this place when the British built it to the post-partition era,” he says.
Also on display are cricket balls with the signatures of Shujauddin Butt, Fazal Mehmood, Salim Malik and Khan Muhammad. The glass shelves in which they are kept are modelled after those showcasing cricket relics at Lord’s in London.
Latif says that he still has plenty more to put on display and plans to utilise a small space, formerly used as a kitchen, to extend the museum. Among the items he would want displayed are a paper cutter Pakistani team was presented during it first official tour of India in 1952. It is labelled ‘To the Pakistan Team presented by Tata Industries’.
“I also want to put on display Imran Khan’s uniform from the 1992 World Cup and his ball, which I have yet to make him sign. I also want to put on display the press badge Khalid Hasan wore while covering the World Cup final in 1992 in Melbourne.”
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 25th, 2012.
The cricket museum he has so lovingly established at the 1880 pavilion at Bagh-e-Jinnah accommodates an array of objects: personal belongings of legendary cricketers, signed bats and balls, pictures documenting the early 20th century cricketing history of the subcontinent.
The 20 by 25 feet space was formerly a dining area in the historical Bagh-e-Jinnah cricket ground, which has the distinction of being the second cricket ground to be built in what was then India under the Raj, the first being the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. It remained the only official cricket ground in Lahore until Gaddafi Stadium was made in 1959.
Latif recalls spending afternoons hanging out at the Bagh-e-Jinnah in the 1950s, snapping shots of cricketers playing and chatting. Many pictures displayed at the museum are from his own collection.
Up until the 1970s, this space used to be a dining hall. “This is where the cricketers bonded and made friends during lunch and tea breaks,” recounts Latif fondly.
Pictures of English cricketers from the 18th and 19th century used to be mounted on the walls. During matches, pictures of the guest team were exhibited on the right wall, while the home team had its pictures on the left.
But on his return to Pakistan in 2002, Latif found that the space was being used as a store and all those historic pictures had been lost to termites, rainfall, and theft. Concerned that a significant era of our cricket heritage was being lost, Latif pushed for a proposal to establish a museum and was finally given approval by Haider Rizvi, the then Lahore Gymkhana convener. The museum was officially inaugurated in November 2009 by Nawaz Sharif.
Now the honorary curator of the museum, Latif talks about the difficulty of acquiring artifacts from families of former cricketers. “Until his death in 2005, Fazal Mahmood [one of the finest fast bowlers of the country’s early years and a former captain of the national team] was a guiding force to me. He referred me to the right people for acquiring things for the museum,” says Latif.
Eventually, most post-Pakistan pictures came from Mehmood Salahuddin, who assisted the English team during their first official visit to Pakistan, and Dr Farakh Ahmad, a first-class cricket player, also from Imran Khan’s family.
The vast array of objects at the museum is a testament to Latif’s efforts. Visitors to the place can see a bat Majid Khan used in 1986, Imran Khan’s trousers from the 1992 World Cup, Salim Malik’s signed shirt and cap, and retired international umpire Iftikhar Ahmad’s jacket. Amongst the first things Latif acquired for the museum were pictures of the first official test match played between India and Pakistan in 1955. Then he got pictures of the maharajas of Patiala and Jammu Kashmir playing cricket here in the 1920s and 1930s. “These pictures are a link between the history of this place when the British built it to the post-partition era,” he says.
Also on display are cricket balls with the signatures of Shujauddin Butt, Fazal Mehmood, Salim Malik and Khan Muhammad. The glass shelves in which they are kept are modelled after those showcasing cricket relics at Lord’s in London.
Latif says that he still has plenty more to put on display and plans to utilise a small space, formerly used as a kitchen, to extend the museum. Among the items he would want displayed are a paper cutter Pakistani team was presented during it first official tour of India in 1952. It is labelled ‘To the Pakistan Team presented by Tata Industries’.
“I also want to put on display Imran Khan’s uniform from the 1992 World Cup and his ball, which I have yet to make him sign. I also want to put on display the press badge Khalid Hasan wore while covering the World Cup final in 1992 in Melbourne.”
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, March 25th, 2012.