KARACHI: Yawar Saeed, whose last assignment as Pakistan team manager was on the ill-fated tour of England in 2010, passed away in Lahore on Wednesday evening after protracted illness.

Yawar, 80, played 50 first-class matches for English county Somerset as an all-rounder between 1953 and 1955 before returning home to appear in nine more games at the domestic level.

After retiring as a player, Yawar became an administrator and served the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a long time in various capacities.

Son of Mian Mohammad Saeed, who was Pakistan’s first-ever captain when the country played unofficial matches before being granted the Test status, Yawar had the national team on several tours.

He was the team manager when the 2010 spot-fixing controversy erupted during the fourth and final Test at Lord’s when the then captain Salman Butt instigated pace bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir to bowl no-balls. The trio were subsequently suspended and then banned by the ICC.

Yawar, who claimed 106 wickets and scored 1,547 runs during his first-class career, was also brother-in-law of former national team captain Fazal Mahmood, rated as one of the finest bowlers in the early years of Pakistan cricket.

PCB chairman while condoling Yawar’s death, described him as a hardworking administrator. The burial of Yawar has been set for Friday.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2015

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