KARACHI Record-breaking batsman Mohammad Yousuf, who said Monday he was bowing out of international cricket, is one of Pakistan's most enigmatic players, a high-profile Muslim convert whose life story is one of rags to riches.
The 35-year-old savoured the pinnacle of success, becoming one of Pakistan's top three Test run-getters with an aggregate of 7,431, but controversies dogged his illustrious 12-year career - most notably since 2007.
Yet it remains unclear whether his emotional announcement Monday that he was bowing out of international cricket was really the final curtain call.
If close friends are to be believed, Yousuf is now committed to preaching Islam and will have no time for the sport at an international level.
But if his “for the time being, I am retiring” comment is heeded, Monday's announcement could well be just another throw of the dice.
Born to a poor Christian family in the slums of Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital and most liberal city, his has been a tale of rags to riches.
Initially taken on as an apprentice at a tailor shop, being taught a trade to keep his family off the breadline, it was pure luck that a local team plucked Yousuf from oblivion. He never looked back.
He was drafted into the national team on the back of a successful domestic season and although he managed single figure scores in his debut Test at Durban in 1998, he slowly and gradually made his mark at international level.
Yousuf credited his record-breaking runs in 2006, a year after he converted to Islam, to his change of faith, but experts believe he possessed the talent from the start of his career.
He clocked up 1,788 runs in that calendar year, surpassing West Indian Viv Richards' landmark of 1,710 runs achieved way back in 1976 - a new world record which earned him best Test player of the year award in 2007.
He also set a new record of most hundreds in a year with nine and on the pitch his classic, precisely timed batting was often peerless.
“I would like to remember Yousuf for what he produced on the 22-yards lots of class, grace and runs,” former captain Ramiz Raja told AFP.
But controversy has never been far away.
In 2002, he was sent home mid-way from a tour in Kenya when he disobeyed the then-captain Waqar Younis.
Overlooked for the captaincy after Pakistan's first-round exit from the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, Yousuf fell out with Shoaib Malik, who replaced the retired Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan's second Test run-getter with 8,829.
Pakistan dropped Yousuf for the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 and so he defected to the rebel Indian Cricket League in a bid to win back favour.
Local media reported that Yousuf took a huge sum of money from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to abandon the ICL and play again for the national team.
But barely a year later, he left again to rejoin the rebel league.
But in February 2009, Yousuf got a stay order from a Pakistani court and was again allowed to play for Pakistan.
He won back the captaincy by default after Younus Khan withdrew from the tours of New Zealand and Australia late last year, but Yousuf flopped both on and off the field.
Perhaps the final nail in his coffin was hammered in earlier this month when the PCB said the “infighting” between Younus and Yousuf had brought down “the whole team” following an inquiry into humiliating defeats in Australia.
