Cricket is a game that relies on agility, fitness and sharp reflexes but it also requires character and experience to balance the exuberance of youth. Renowned for regularly introducing precocious teenage talent, Pakistan cricket has also produced four players who have played international cricket after their fortieth birthday. They form an interesting group, with diverse life stories underlying their longevity in the game.Amir Elahi

Amir Elahi belongs to a select group of twelve cricketers who have played Test cricket for more than one country. Starting his career as a medium pacer he switched to bowling leg breaks and googlies, and it was in this role that he made his mark.

Born in Lahore in 1908, Amir Elahi was a late entrant into first-class cricket, making his debut in 1934 at the age of 26. He had a modest start with only 13 wickets in five matches in his initial season but made a big impact the following year with 42 wickets from 11 matches in the domestic circuit. This won him a place in the Indian team to tour England in 1936, but success eluded him on the trip. He was able to procure only 17 expensive wickets at 42.90 runs apiece and was not selected for any of the Test matches.

Amir Elahi, however, continued his fine form in domestic matches and in four productive seasons from 1937-38 to 1940-41 captured 175 wickets at an an average of just 19.20. Though the war years interrupted his career he enjoyed regular success in local first class tournaments and was chosen as a member of the Indian team for it's inaugural tour of Australia in 1947-48. By this time he had accumulated 443 first-class wickets at a cost of 25.59 runs each.

The Australian tour was another woeful experience for him, producing just 8 wickets at over 65 runs per dismissal. Amir Elahi did, however, make his Test debut during this series, in the second Test at Sydney, at the ripe age of 39 years and 102 days. In his solitary Test appearance on the tour he did not get to bowl but was asked to open the Indian batting in the second innings and made 13 runs as an opener.

In 1950 Amir Elahi migrated to Pakistan and played for his new country against the visiting MCC team in 1951-52 in both the unofficial Tests played by the tourists. He was selected for Pakistan's inaugural tour of India in 1952 and was in the team for all five Tests. He took 7 wickets in the series at an average of 35.42, but his most memorable performance on that tour was as a batsman. In the drawn 4th Test at Chennai, in Pakistan's only innings, Amir Elahi joined Zulfiqar Ahmed in a partnership of 104 runs for the last wicket in just 85 minutes, which was at the time the 5th highest 10th wicket stand in Test cricket. This series was Amir Elahi's Test epilogue. He never played for Pakistan again, concluding his Test career at the age of 44 years and 105 days.

Miran Baksh

The next player on the list, Miran Baksh, had an interesting career. He was born in Rawalpindi in 1907. His father was the chief groundsman at the Pindi Club Ground and Miran Baksh developed an interest in the game while helping his father with his duties and became a skilled off-spin bowler. Tall and well built he bowled fastish off breaks off a reasonably long run up. He would provide practice to batsmen in the nets and regularly played in local club matches.

However, after the creation of Pakistan events took a totally different turn. In November 1948 the West Indies became the first international team to tour Pakistan and the forty one year old Miran Baksh was chosen to play for the NWFP Commander-in-Chief's Eleven in a two day, non-first-class match, against the visiting team at the Pindi Club Ground. He justified his selection by taking 5 wickets for 61 runs, which included the famous George Headley and Clyde Walcott. When a Commonwealth team toured Pakistan the following year Miran Bux was again selected for the Commander-in-Chief's Eleven for another two day game against the visitors at the Pindi Club Ground. He put in an outstanding bowling performance, taking five wickets in each innings for match figures of 10 for 82.

His first-class debut came a few weeks before his 43rd birthday when he again played for the Commander-in-Chief's Eleven against a visiting team from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1950. Following this game he was completely forgotten by the cricket authorities and did not play another first class match till January 1955, when, at the ripe age of 47 years and 284 days, he was plucked out of the blue to play a Test against the touring Indian team. Bizarre to say the least. He was the second oldest cricketer to make his Test debut after Jim Southerton's 49 years and 119 days. Miran Bux made an auspicious start to his Test career, clean bowling both Pananmal Punjabi and Vijay Manjrekar, but was unfortunate to have Polly Umrigar dropped off his bowling, early in his knock of 78. He ended up with 2 wickets for 82 from 48 tidy overs. He played in the next Test as well, which was his last appearance for Pakistan, leaving him with final Test career figures of 2 wickets for 115 runs. His first-class career did, however, receive a boost from his Test appearances and he played in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy till the age of 51.

Misbah-ul-Haq

Misbah, who was born in 1974, began his first-class career at the rather late age of 24. His subsequent Test debut came when he was just a few months short of his 27th birthday and over the next six and a half years he played for Pakistan sporadically, appearing in just five Tests without any making any impact. It was in 2007 that he became a regular feature of the national Test side, beginning with a home series against South Africa. He was 33 years old and many felt that his Test career would be limited to a few more years, but Misbah had other ideas in mind. In the following series, against arch rivals India, he amassed 464 runs in three Tests, including two unbeaten centuries, at an average of 116.00 runs per innings, forcing everyone to sit up and take notice.

In 2010 the Pakistani team touring England was involved in a match-fixing scandal. The captain, Salman Butt, was one of the players found guilty and was consequently dropped from the side. Misbah, who had been overlooked for this tour, was now entrusted with the captaincy of the national team to play South Africa in the UAE. He celebrated his ascension to leadership with six consecutive Test fifties, three against South Africa and another three in the following away series versus New Zealand. Three more scores of over fifty in the next five innings, meant that he had started his career as Test captain with nine fifty plus scores in eleven visits to the crease, a remarkable and unparalleled feat.

Misbah was a two dimensional batsman, alternating between prolonged periods of solid dead-bat defense that earned him the epithet 'tuk-tuk', or ferocious bursts of savage attack when going for the kill. While a batsman's best years are generally between 28 to 35, Misbah was an aberration as he simply got better with age. Of his total aggregate of 5222 Test runs, Misbah scored 4509, or 86%, after the age of 35. Eight of his ten Test centuries and thirty eight of his thirty nine Test fifties also came during this period. Even more impressively, 1960 runs or 37.5% were scored after his fortieth birthday, including five centuries and 14 fifties. This is the second highest Test aggregate of all time by someone after turning forty, behind only Jack Hobbs' tally of 2440.

Misbah was also over 35 when he broke the record for the fastest 50 in Test cricket in just 21 balls against Australia at Abu Dhabi in November 2014. He reached his hundred in that innings in merely 56 balls, equaling Viv Richards record at the time for the fastest Test century ever in terms of balls faced. Misbah was 42 years and 47 days old when he scored 114 at Lords in July 2016, becoming the oldest player to reach a Test century for 82 years. This innings also made him the oldest captain ever to score a Test hundred and the sixth oldest centurion overall in Test history. He celebrated by doing ten push ups on the hallowed grass of the home of cricket, testifying to his extreme fitness even at this ripe age.

Misbah finally retired from ODI cricket in March 2015 aged 40 years and 296 days and from Test cricket in May 2017 at the age of 42 years and 351 days. He played a record 29 Tests after crossing 40, signing off as the fifth oldest Test captain in the annals of the game. In his final Test series, a three match affair against the West Indies, he had two scores of 99, including an unbeaten one, again a record for a retiring cricketer and for someone over 40. In the process he also became the oldest Test cricketer to be be dismissed for 99 as well as the oldest to remain unbeaten with 99. It was a fitting way to say adieu for someone who had played his best cricket at an age when most cricketers have long hung up their boots.

Mohammad Hafeez

Mohammad Hafeez is one of the most versatile cricketers to play for Pakistan in this millennium. Born in October 1980, he made both his Test and ODI debuts in 2003, before his 23rd birthday. With an organised defence as well as a wide range of aggressive shots, Hafeez could bat anywhere in the top six, though the opener's slot was his preferred position, accounting for almost fifty percent of his total international run aggregate. As an off-spinner he was not a big turner of the ball but exercised great control over line and length, deceiving batsmen through variations of flight and trajectory. Interestingly, Hafeez opened both the batting and the bowling in the same match in 7 Tests and 14 ODI's.

His early form for Pakistan was patchy and inconsistent, resulting in irregular appearances for the national team. However, 2011 saw a definite change of fortune as Hafeez became only the third cricketer, after Sanath Jayasuriya and Jacques Kallis, to score 1000-plus runs and take 30 or more wickets in ODIs in a calendar year. This marked the beginning of a five year purple patch from 2011 to 2015, during which he scored 2543 Test runs with 7 centuries and 7603 runs in ODI's including 11 hundreds. His batting was supplemented by 164 wickets in international matches and good fielding ability, especially in the point area. This combination of skills firmly established his stature as a leading all-rounder in world cricket.

Hafeez bowed out of Tests in 2018 at the age of 38 years and 47 days. In 2019 he also bid goodbye to ODI's, aged 38 years and 261 days. However, he continued to play on past the age of forty in T20 Internationals, the format he initially seemed least suited for. A halcyon year in 2020 saw him emerge as the leading T20 run scorer for the calendar year with 415 runs at an average of 83.00 per innings and a strike rate of 152.57 runs per hundred balls. After playing in the T20 World Cup of 2021 Hafeez announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 41 years and 25 days.

Almost 40

In addition to these four players whose careers extended into their forties, Shoaib Malik, who participated in the 2021 T20 World Cup, was 39 years and 292 days old when he played his last match in the tournament. He has now turned forty and has no imminent plans for retirement. The next time he plays for the national side he, too, will join this exclusive club of cricketers who have played international cricket for Pakistan after crossing the 40 year age barrier. Three other Pakistani Test cricketers came tantalizingly close to the magic figure of forty years but missed it by a few months. Younis Ahmed, Imran Khan and Younis Khan all applied closure to their international careers between the ages of thirty nine and forty.

Age is just a number not a bar

It should not hinder where you go, nor how far

– 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