Dilawar Hussain

Dilawar Hussain  pronunciation  ( born 19 March 1907, Lahore - died on 26 August 1967, Lahore) was an early Indian Test cricketer.

Dilawar kept wickets for India in three Test matches. On his debut, Dilawar was made to open the innings against England on a green wicket in Calcutta in 1933/34. He was hit on the head by Morris Nichols and retired. He returned with a bandage over his head, was hit on the thumb by Nobby Clark, but top scored with 59. He made 57 in the second innings and is one of the few cricketers to top score in both innings on debut. He had started his first class career making 64 and 112 in his very first match. His last appearance came about in the 1936 Indian tour of England; Dilawar was in Cambridge at the time and joined the team in England.

Cota Ramaswami has painted an exquisite picture of Dilawar -

He was a tall and bulky person with a prominent stomach and invariably played with a clean shaven head without any hat or cap or any kind of head gear. He always wore very loose pants and after batting for a while or keeping wicket for sometime his shirt will be hanging out of the trousers and somebody must tuck it in, now and then. He had a rather ugly and uncouth stance at the wicket as he held his bat very low and bent his body forward so much that his head was practically in line with the top of the wickets. Those who watched him from the on side could only see his prominent hind portion of the body sticking up while the head, bat and the rest of Dilawar Hussain were hardly visible. However, he had a very sound defense and so it was very difficult to get him out. He was the most selfish batsman that I have ever seen'.

Because of his time in Cambridge, Dilawar missed a few seasons of domestic cricket. Cashman writes that he had an encyclopedic memory which enabled him to recall cricket score sheets ar will and was also a 'great eater and talker', 'who could liven the passing hour with an unbroken monologue on any subject from philosophy ... to the art of seasoning a good curry'. Dilawar was known as 'Professor' in his later years. He took a doctorate in Philosophy and was a double M.A. degree holder. He served as the Principal of the Government College, London and the Muslim Anglo-Oriental College in Lahore. He was a founder member of the Cricket Control Board in Pakistan and a selector.

References

• ^ Quoted in Mihir Bose, A History of Indian Cricket
• ^ Richard Cashman, Patrons, Players and the Crowd : The Phenomenon of Indian Cricket
• Cricinfo Profile
• Cricketarchive Profile