Zaheer Abbas: “Hanif Mohammad was my inspiration and my hero. He was the epitome of a gutsy, determined and humble cricketer and someone who I wanted to follow when it came to cricket”
Image courtesy of: Pakistan Cricket Board
Legendary Pakistan batsman Zaheer Abbas has said that Hanif Mohammad was “my inspiration and my hero”.
Abbas said what he loved most about Hanif was the fact that he was “the epitome of a gutsy, determined and humble cricketer”.
The 73-year-old added that he used to pray Hanif scored a lot of runs and didn’t get hurt whenever going to watch the iconic batsman play for Pakistan.
“Hanif Mohammad was my inspiration and my hero. He was the epitome of a gutsy, determined and humble cricketer and someone who I wanted to follow when it came to cricket,” Abbas told Wisden as quoted by PakPassion. “I would copy his batting technique as a small child and through school cricket and pretend to be him whenever I played against my friends.
“We had this game where each of us pretended to be a famous cricketer and nobody dared to be Hanif as they all knew he was my favourite cricketer and that I would want to pretend to be him.
“I had this routine where I prayed for Hanif that he didn’t get hurt when playing for Pakistan and that he scored lots of runs whenever I went to watch him bat at the National Stadium.”