Cricket takes pride of place in Pakistan's sports history because this was the first sport in which the newly born independent state made its debut at the international level. Early in 1948, through the efforts of Mr. Justice. A.R. Cornelius, rightly dubbed the Father of Pakistan Cricket, the West Indies team touring India was invited for "detour " of Pakistan. Under the leadership of the late Mian Muhammad Saeed, Pakistan made an impressive showing the first-ever unofficial Test played on the picturesque Bagh-i-Jinnah ground in Lahore. Skipper Mian Saeed scored a century in this drawn match.

In the winter of 1951-52, Pakistan gained her spurs and staked a claim for full-fledged membership of the - then Imperial Cricket Conference (rechristened in International Cricket Conference or ICC for short) when under the captaincy of Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistan beat the touring MCC team by 4 wickets in the representative match at Karachi This helped Pakistan gain official Test status and membership of the ICC in 1952.

In the first official series played in India, Pakistan beat India in the second Test at Lucknow by an innings, a victory which justified Pakistan's hard-won official Test status. It was the fore runner of a unique achievement a win over every other member country of the ICC (that is, except South Africa with which Pakistan did not have any diplomatic relationship or sporting ties). This feat still remains unmatched in the annals of Test Cricket.

Pakistan has come a long way since attaining official Test status 37 years ago. Today she is rated among the top cricket-playing countries of the world. For this she is indebted to some of the greatest players brn in this part of the sub-continent. Such world famous players as Fazal, Imtiaz, Hanif, Kardar, Saeed, Burki, Mushtaq, Asif, Zaheer, Majid, Imran, Sarfraz, Intikhab, Wasim Bari, Wasirn Raja, Miandad, Mudassar and a host of lesser luminaries played for Pakistan at the highest level and won for their country's team laurels and honours. Any other team in the world which had the services of such a brilliant array and galaxy of stars in its ranks over the years deserved a much better record than was actually chronicalled by the games historians.

The reasons for this are not difficult to ascertain and explain. The parent body of the game, the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP for short) was plagued with petty politics. Lack of proper control over its affiliates, the divided loyalties within the team, and absence of discipline among the players resulted in the absence of unity and team spirit. Above all, the inspiring leadership was sadly missing. The graph of Pakistan's cricket fortunes began to show an appreciable rise when Imran Khan, one of the greatest all-rounders born in this part of the world, took over the reins of captaincy. His charismatic personality and shrewd leadership transformed a relatively young but highly talented bunch of individuals into a fighting outfit. What is more, this newlook team learn to play under pressure and win. During his short tenure as Skipper- a stress fracture of his left knee kept Imran Khan away from the Test scene for over two years Pakistan's fortunes rose to unprecedented heights. It proved beyond a shadow of doubt that Imran Khan was not only the best captain Pakistan had ever had but also the luckiest.

In his farewell cricket year (1987) Imran recorded feats which none of his dozen predecessors had done to win a Test rubber on Indian soil and beat England in a series in England. However, Imran's luck seemed to run out towards the end of 1987 when Pakistan failed to win the coveted Reliance Cup staged for the first time in this subcontinent and jointly hosted by Pakistan and India. Pakistan was beaten in the semi-final by Australia at Lahore. Thus Imran Khan's Dream Number Three - to win the World Cup before retiring from the Test scene remained unrealised. But he left a legacy which one hopes will be carried forward in the years to come.

The period under review saw cricket activity round the five Continents as never before. Two world cup contests - the fifth and sixth of the series started in 1975 - organised. Both featured Pakistan prominently. In the 1992 World Cup staged down under by Australia and NewZealand for the first time Pakistan made amends for her failure to win any of the first four global contests by beating England by 22 runs in the final at the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia. Led by the charismatic captain, Imran Khan, Pakistan's performance was termed a Miracle at Melbourne. It was compared to a horserace in which the favourite gets left at the starting gate, makes up a lot of ground in the homestretch and surprises the front runners at the wire. It proved to be Imran Khan's swan song.

Imran's retirement from the cricket scene brought about an upheaval in Pakistan's cricket. Her image got tarnished as never before and its reputation as the World Champions was badly dented. Team spirit disintegrated, indiscipline creeped in and made Pakistan vulnerable both on and off the field. A captaincy crisis led to several changes in the driving seat. Miandad, Wasim Akram, Salim Malik, Ramiz Raja, Moin Khan all had their stints as captain. But none stayed long enough in the hot seat as skipper.

Even the good old BCCP was disbanded and an Ad Hoc committee headed by Javed Burki set up to run the parent body of the game. Pakistan cricket was in a turmoil. Pakistan was branded as cheats. Charges of ball tampering, betting and bribing were levelled. But nothing was proved. An article entitled "Pariahs of cricket" was deliberately published in a Fleet Street tabloid which led to a liberal case in a British court which ultimately decided in favour of Pakistan and handsome damages claimed by the cricket authorities in Pakistan.

The World Cup came back to the sub-continent for the second time when Pakistan and India were Joined by Sri Lanka as hosts to stage the global contest in which a dozen teams - three from among the Associate Members of the ICC (UAE, Kenya and Holland) joined the nine Test playing members of the ICC to make it a round-dozen contest for the first time. The twelve contestant were divided into two groups of six teams each. Group A comprised holders Pakistan, South Africa. England. New Zealand. UAE and Holland while Group B comprised Australia. the West Indies, India. Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Lahore was to stage the final while the two semi-finals were fixed for Bombay and Mohali in India.

The Group matches were held in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. Australia and the West Indies refused to play their matches against Sri Lanka on the latter's soil because of security reasons. They forfeited their matches which gave Sri Lanka four points without playing two of their five Group matches. They won the remaining three and headed the table to qualify for the semi-final. Pakistan had to go Bangalore to play India and lost in the quarter finals. Sri Lanka beat India in the semis and went on to qualify for the final, Australia and the West Indies fought out the other semi-final at Mohali which Australia were lucky to win. India earned a bad name when Sri Lanka were awarded the match by the Match Referee after the Indian supporters disrupted the match which India was on the verge of losing. Sri Lanka thus became the first team from the subcontinent, to make it to the final. For the first time a team from this subcontinent won the coveted World Cup when Sri Lanka went on to beat Australia in the day-and-night final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. The jinx that no host country ever won the World Cup was hit for six - Sri Lanka emerged as the World Cup champion after giving superb displays of team spirit in all matches. Their triumph was well-earned. Three cheers for the Sri Lankans whose earned. Three cheers for the Sri Lankans whose all round displays and team spirit made them deserving winners.