Former pacer reveals he bowled around 110/115mph in 1960s
Karachi: Former Pakistan pacer, Farooq Hamid who represented the national side in only one Test in 1964 against Australia where he took a wicket of Ian Chappel, has revealed that he bowled at a speed of 110/115 miles per hour.
The 75-year-old in an interview with Dawn said that due to dirty politics in Pakistan cricket and Mohammad Brothers, he only managed to play one Test and left the cricket at the age of 25.
“All my colleagues know what sort of treatment I was meted out from my captains, topping that list is great Hanif Mohammad — may God bless his soul — and his brother Wazir Mohammad, who made sure I never played international cricket after the tour to Australia.”
“Hanif, while facing me in 1969 final in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, was bowled with an out-swinging yorker on the very third ball he faced. Many international cricket personalities such as great Sir Don Bradman besides or own Imtiaz Ahmed, Zaheer Abbas and others considered me as the fastest bowler, even faster than Charlie Griffith of the West Indies,” he added.
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“Many leading cricketers were scared of my bouncers. Great batsman Rohan Kanhai was floored by my lethal bouncer. Later, the commentators said that I was much quicker than Griffith. I must have been bowling at around 110-115 miles per hour I think.”
He revealed that even Bradman praised him as a pacer when he met him during the Australian tour in Adelaide.
He blamed team management for not handling his aggressive attitude. “Every fast bowler should be aggressive, it was the job of the team management to handle fast bowlers carefully.”
Farooq thinks that the politics is still in Pakistan cricket but the most loved sports of the country is in safe hands as Imran Khan is country’s Prime Minister.
“Yes, the same politics is going on and harming our cricket. But we are lucky now that we have legendary all-rounder Imran Khan as Prime Minister and hopefully, cricket will improve under him. If Imran Khan fails to correct the system then only God can save our cricket,” he maintained.
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