Abdul Qadir was born in 1955 in Dharampura, Lahore where his father functioned as the Imam of the local mosque. He was one of four siblings who grew up in a tiny house, barely eking out an existence on his father's meagre salary. He played street games like marbles with other children in the neighborhood but had no exposure to cricket until the age of twelve, when his friends enlisted him to make up the team numbers for a local match.He developed an interest in the game and through hard work polished his skills, becoming a leading batsman for his school team. To support his family financially he also started working at a local bookstall, where his friends would pay the stall owner to have Qadir released for cricket matches for their side. By now he had also decided to become a leg spinner and taught himself the art of bowling different types of deliveries through regular net practice. He would constantly experiment with different grips and trajectories, and by his own confession, even imagine them in his dreams. Entirely self taught, he soon developed a large range and repertoire, being able to bowl standard deliveries in three or four different ways.

He was noticed and recruited by the leading local club, the Dharampura Gymkhana, and he rewarded them with a century and five wickets in his initial match for their first eleven. His cricketing ability won him admission to the Government College Lahore, for whom he scored 145 in the inter-collegiate finals against their traditional rivals, Islamia College.

He made his first-class debut at the National Stadium Karachi, in September 1975, playing for Habib Bank versus the United Bank in the Sikander Ali Bhutto Cup. He made an immediate impact, taking 6 wickets for 67 runs in United Bank's first innings. His next first-class match was for Lahore 'C' against Bahawalpur in the Punjab Tournament and he turned in a superb all round performance by snaring 6 wickets for 17 runs in Bahawalpur's first innings and then following it with a knock of 112. In his first season of first-class cricket, in 8 matches, Qadir took 31 wickets at 17.29 runs apiece and scored 367 runs at an average of 28.23 per innings.

The next season of 1976-77 brought Qadir further success as he took 67 wickets at the miserly cost of 16.47 runs per wicket, including five wickets in an innings on 8 occasions and 10 wickets in a match twice. Though his batting suffered, his bowling continued to gain impetus and in December 1977, he was selected to play for Pakistan against the visiting England side. He took a solitary wicket in the 1st Test at Lahore, but in the next one, staged at the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad, captured 6 English wickets for just 44 runs in their first innings. He ended the 1977-78 season with 72 first-class wickets at an average of 17.75, as well as scoring 445 runs averaging 44.50 per innings.

Qadir toured England with the national team in 1978 but injuries plagued him throughout the tour and he failed to achieve anything of note. His Test performances over the next few years did not do justice to his talent, though he continued to be a prolific wicket taker on the domestic circuit, reaping 63 wickets in the 1980-81 season and 87 wickets in the 1981-82 season respectively. With Imran's appointment as Pakistan's captain in 1982 Qadir's career took a decisive upturn. Imran considered Qadir as a potential match winner and deployed him as an attacking member of his bowling entourage. Before embarking on the tour of England in 1982, Imran encouraged Qadir to grow a goatee to add to his image as a mysterious figure from the East with a bag of bowling tricks up his sleeve. Qadir did not disappoint his captain, capturing 42 wickets in only 7 games against the counties. In the Tests he displayed his best form in the second Test at Lords where his six wickets helped Pakistan to a resounding win. Qadir had the aggression of a fast bowler and preferred to attack the batsman with his guile and skill, rather than buy wickets through sustained attrition. His combative nature, a theatrical run-up and a wide and deceptive array of deliveries, resulted in riveting contests against his batting opponents. Qadir captured the public imagination, drew crowds to the stadia and developed a large following of doting admirers.

Qadir continued his good form into the home series against the visiting Australian team with 22 wickets in the three Test series, including 11 for 218 runs in the second Test at Faisalabad. He tormented the Aussies with his arsenal of bowling variations and helped Pakistan to their first series whitewash of a touring team. He also became the first Pakistani bowler to take over 100 wickets in a home season, capturing 103 victims at 22.98 runs apiece.

The next season saw the English batsmen trying to figure out his intricacies as he took 19 wickets against them in three Test matches, including 3 fifers and a 10 wicket haul in the third Test at Lahore. When the West Indies visited Pakistan for a three Test series in the winter of 1986 Qadir was at his peak. In the opening Test at Faisalabad the visitors were chasing a target of 240 runs in their second innings for victory. After removing Greenidge and Haynes cheaply Imran introduced his trump card Qadir into the attack. Qadir struck immediately, outfoxing Gomes with a big googly and sending Viv Richards back to the pavilion just two balls later, caught by Ramiz Raja at forward short leg. Bowling with his inimitable combination of gusto and guile, Qadir sliced through the West Indies batting order to dismiss them for a paltry total of 53. The West Indian team, which was being rated as the strongest side in cricket history, had been humbled by the magic of Qadir who took 6 wickets for just 16 runs in 9.3 overs of tantalizing, indecipherable spin.

When he toured England again with the Pakistan side in 1987, Qadir was generally acclaimed as the best spinner in the world. He arrived late in the tour due to his wife's illness and reserved his best performance for the final Test at the Oval. On a featherbed wicket Pakistan piled up 708, with a mammoth innings of 260 from Javed Miandad and centuries by Salim Malik and Imran Khan. In England's reply Qadir produced an outstanding performance on this batsman's paradise. Bowling almost unchanged, he picked up 7 wickets for 96 runs from 44.4 overs. When England followed-on 476 runs behind Qadir fought a lone battle as Wasim Akram left the field for an emergency appendicectomy and Imran broke down as well. Three wickets from Qadir reduced England to 139 for 4, before Gatting and Botham mounted a rearguard action to save the match for the home side. Qadir bowled 53 overs in the second innings and a total of 97.4 overs in the match. It was a remarkable show of stamina, endurance and skill on a dead wicket.

Qadir was an attacking bowler who could bowl six differentdeliveries in an over. This made him fascinating to watch but also expensive, because safety was the last thing on his mind. His figures make interesting reading. In 67 Tests he took 236 wickets at an average of 32.80, while in first-class cricket he took 960 wickets at 23.24. 

Qadir reached the apogee of his Test career during England's visit to Pakistan in November/December 1987. In the first Test in Lahore he bowled unchanged for 37 overs in the first innings to take 9 wickets for 56 runs and followed it up with 4 for 45 in 36 overs in England's second innings, returning match figures of 13 wickets for 101 runs from 73 overs, at an economy rate of just 1.44 runs per over. Writing for The Guardian, Mark Selvey described him as "the little paragon of prestidigitation, the sultan of spin." With 7 more wickets in the 2nd Test at Faisalabad and 10 in the 3rd Test at Karachi, Qadir ended the three Test series with 30 wickets at an average of just 14.56. This was leg spin bowling at its best and the English batsmen did not have a clue as to how to play him. John Woodcock would later remember this performance. "facing him at his best must have been as severe a test of a batsman's nerve and capacity as any slow bowler has ever represented."

After this memorable series against England, Qadir's form in Test cricket gradually faded and he retired from Test arena in 1990. He continued to play first class matches until the age of forty, trapping more than fifty victims even in his penultimate season of 1994-95.

Following his retirement, Qadir briefly served as the Chief Selector of the national team, and ran a sports goods shop and a cricket academy in Lahore, close to his roots. He was also a recipient of the President's Pride of Performance medal. His brother Ali Bahadur and four of his sons, namely Imran Qadir, Salman Qadir, Rahman Qadir and Usman Qadir also played first class cricket, and his son in law, Umar Akmal, represented the Pakistan national side. Qadir passed away prematurely in 2019, from a massive heart attack, at the age of just 63.

Qadir was a true genius with the ball who revived the dying art of leg spin in the late 1970s and early 80s. Coming off a loping, bouncy, angular run up to the wicket, he would deliver the ball with a great flourish of his arms. He had more than one standard leg spin delivery, varying both the flight and the turn of the ball, to conjure up a wide range of combinations. He possessed at least two different googlies, unleashed at different speeds, delivered with different arm actions, and bowled from different parts of the crease. He also bowled the top spinner and the flipper with great accuracy and effect, and was often spoilt for choice, using too much variety rather than focusing on establishing a rhythm.

His captain Imran Khan used him as one of his main attacking bowlers, but his figures suffered because the umpires often failed to read the complexities of his armamentarium. Had DRS and ball tracking systems been available in his days, Qadir's figures would have been significantly different.

Even the legendary Shane Warne identifies Qadir as his bowling idol. During Australia's tour of Pakistan in 1994-95, the journalist Qamar Ahmed arranged for Warne to visit Qadir's home. They ended up spinning an orange to each other across the sitting-room carpet. "That was an education," said Warne. "One of the most interesting nights of my life." Graham Gooch who played against both Qadir and Warne rated Qadir as the better of the two and felt that Qadir was more awkward to face: "Reading him is one thing; playing him is another. He'd show you a googly you could read, then he would bowl one you suspected of being a googly, but weren't sure about. Then he'd send down one you'd be completely bamboozled by, but it would usually turn out to be another googly. These were all bowled with a different action, to complement his leg-break, top-spinner and flipper." He amazed Richie Benaud by demonstrating how he used three fingers to spin the ball, rather than two. "With three you get more power, more turn, and it's easier to bowl the googly," he said.

Qadir was an attacking bowler who could bowl six different deliveries in an over. This made him fascinating to watch but also expensive, because safety was the last thing on his mind. His figures make interesting reading. In 67 Tests he took 236 wickets at an average of 32.80, while in first-class cricket he took 960 wickets at 23.24 runs each. This is a remarkable tally considering that he played no county cricket, turning down lucrative offers from Kent and Surrey. In 104 ODI's he captured 132 wickets at 26.16 runs apiece. Against England he enjoyed special success, with 82 Test wickets at 24.98 runs apiece and 23 ODI wickets at an average of 18.08.

His best hunting ground was the National Stadium Karachi, where he took 59 Test wickets at 26.62 runs each and 181 first-class wickets at an average of 19.54 runs apiece. However, figures do not reflect the true spin bowling genius that he was. Watching Qadir was akin to attending a show, mesmerised by his mystery and skill, rather than focusing on mundane statistics alone.

He became the role model for a whole breed of leg spinners; Mushtaq Ahmed, Danish Kaneria and Imran Tahir are amongst those who copied his style. As Wisden noted, he took "leg-spin bowling out of a dusty museum cabinet and repurposed it for the modern age." He lent a mystique and an aura to leg spin bowling that it had not enjoyed before, sending the blood racing with the sheer audacity of his onslaught on many a hapless batsman, employing both cunning and craftiness to outfox them. He was a true showman, a wonderful image for the modern game, gifted with unique ability and flair, a magician in a leg-spinners garb who enchanted all with dazzling displays of his art.

- Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.

salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com