When Nawaz Sharif took over captaincy from Imran Khan for one match

Lucknow: Former Pakistan cricketing great Imran Khan has emerged victorious against a much-experienced and now jailed politician Nawaz Sharif to occupy the Prime Minister's chair of the country. But, during his career of amazing highs in various fields, he once had another encounter with three-time PM of Pakistan.

It was a rather interesting encounter as it took place during a Cricket match against West Indies, which used to be the most dominant force in the sport at the time.

Right before the 1987 ICC World Cup on October 4, 1987, Punjab Chief Minister’s XI was scheduled to play a match against West Indies. At the time, Nawaz Sharif was the Chief Minister of Punjab Province.

Right before the start of the match, Sharif announced that he was going to captain the home team instead of Imran Khan. Interestingly, Sharif had only played one first-class match in his early age for Railways against PIA in 1973-74, and had scored a duck.

As it was really fearsome to face an attack as deadly as West Indies during 80s, not only Imran but the entire Pakistan team was in a shock when Sharif stepped out on the field in his whites for the toss with the then Caribbean skipper Vivian Richards.

In his autobiography 'Pakistan: A personal history', Imran Khan has narrated the entire incident, saying, "Just before the World Cup in October 1987, when I was captaining Pakistan, we played a warm-up match against the West Indies at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Moments before the match, the secretary of the Cricket board, Shahid Rafi, informed me that the Chief Minister of Punjab, Nawaz Sharif, was going to captain the team that day."

Imran was shocked to hear that but he still thought that Sharif would be participating in a non-playing role and might be willing to watch the match from the dressing room. But Sharif had some other plans as he walked out for the toss in full Cricket whites.

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The then Pakistan captain got even more shocked when Nawaz Sharif declared that he was going to open the inning with Mudassar Nazar.

Nazar was a very experienced opener and had scored over 4,000 runs in Test Cricket. Where Nazar was wearing batting pads, a thigh pad, chest pad, an arm guard, a helmet and reinforced batting gloves, Sharif only donned his batting pads and a floppy hat, apart from a big smile.

Imran Khan further writes, "None of the team members could believe what we were seeing. He was going to open the innings with Mudassar Nazar against the West Indies, one of the greatest fast-bowling attacks in Cricket history," adding, "Sharif did not have the reflexes to defend himself if a short ball was aimed at his body or head. So there was a great risk of serious injury. I quickly checked if there was an ambulance ready."

To everyone’s relief, Sharif missed the first delivery and was cleaned bowled off the next delivery.

Well, this seriously was an interesting story to come across; wasn't it?

Credit: CricCry Blog