Saadat Ali ‘astonished’ at longevity of record

Former first-class cricketer’s feat remains unbroken to date.

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s first-class record holder Saadat Ali, whose tally of 1,649 runs in one first-class season back in 1984 is the highest made by a Pakistani at the domestic level, is astonished that his record still stands after 29 years.

The 58-year-old achieved the feat while representing House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) and ended up scoring 10,122 runs in his first-class career in 148 matches at an impressive average of 47.97 with 21 centuries and 43 fifties.

His personal best at first class level was 277, while he also went on to represent Pakistan in eight One-Day Internationals (ODI), scoring 184 runs at an average of 30.66.



“My record still stands today after nearly three decades which is shocking for me,” Ali told The Express Tribune.

“This indicates that traits of patience and ability to play long innings throughout the season are ending in our batsmen. I feel my record isn’t so great because it’s just 1,649 runs, not 2,000 or 2,500 runs, and thus someone should’ve broken it by now.”

Ali is now one of the most respected match referees at the domestic level and he feels that cricket has become easier as compared to when he played.

He backed his statement by pointing out that there were no covers for pitches back in 1970s and 80s and teams had to play the match on schedule whether the pitch was ideal or not.

“There were no covers and we used to play whether the pitch was wet or dry,” he said. “One can understand how difficult it would’ve been for us to bat on those surfaces, yet there used to be at least one batsman from each department who would score over 1,000 runs each season.”

“The quality of cricket played is comparably low now, while players have the best equipment available and yet the top run scorers were only around the 500-700 runs mark last season in the President’s Trophy.”

Ali stressed that his record echoes the fact that he had a solid start as school and college cricket was very competitive in those days and all top players emerged from there.

“We used to play three-day matches during our inter-school and inter-college competitions, which was the key to our success,” he added. “That system should be revived if we want to improve the standard of our national cricket.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2013.

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