Abdul Qadir speaks to Shazia Hassan

Playing in the World Cup was like a dream come true. Of course I had to fight for it. But what a World Cup it was.

1983 was a time when the art of leg-spin bowling was pretty much dead and gone and they didn't really approve of slow bowlers playing one-day matches. Not having played a single one-day match until then, I asked Haseeb Ahsan, our chief selector at the time, why I couldn't also feature in the mega event as apart from my bowling I was a useful batsman (capable of scoring 20 to 25 runs) while also being good in the field.

I was told that if skipper Imran Khan wanted he could include me in the squad. Then I approached Imran to inquire how many runs he felt were okay for a bowler to give away in his bowling quota to which he replied “40”. So in all earnest I told him to throw me out of the ground if I gave away a run more than that in my quota, which was 12 overs as the one-dayers then were 60 overs each.

I made my one-day debut in the second match against New Zealand at Edgbaston. I bowled the entire 12 overs, four of which were maidens, and gave away only 21 runs while picking up four wickets in the process. Batting, I scored 41 to remain not out. My performance in this, my first one-day match also earned me the Man of the Match prize.

But to my surprise, even after setting a new standard in batting and bowling analysis for Pakistan in that match, I was again almost dropped from the match against Sri Lanka at Leads on June 13. The decision to not include me against Sri Lanka was made by the Pakistan think tank who thought that the Lankans handled spinners rather well. It was only at the time of the toss that Imran decided to make a last-minute inclusion — me!

Batting first, we were dismissed for 235 runs. Sri Lanka would have easily met the target. Roy Dias was batting on 47 and captain Mendis was on 33. We were losing when Imran called be back to bowl my remaining quota.

I remember fielding at square leg then and the spectators were screaming for me to show them my magic. So when I returned for my second spell, I wasn't just coming back to complete my quota, I was coming back to get the two batsmen out.

I asked Imran to give me a silly mid-on, a silly mid-off, a slip and a gully. My first over saw the stumping of Dias, Mendis's getting caught behind followed by Ranatunga getting run out. I ended up with five wickets for 44 runs and Pakistan winning that match by 11 runs with me being named the Man of the Match in my second one-dayer, too.