Veteran cricket journalist Qamar Ahmed passes away at 88

KARACHI: Veteran cricket journalist, broadcaster and former first-class cricketer Qamar Ahmed died in Karachi on Thursday after a cardiac-related illness. He was 88.

His funeral prayers were offered at Masjid Bait-ul-Salam in DHA Phase IV after Maghrib. Earlier this month, Qamar had told Dawn that he had been admitted to a Karachi hospital after suffering cardiac issues on June 2. He underwent an angioplasty and doctors advised him to rest. His sister later confirmed his death, saying, "Qamar quietly passed away while sleeping in the morning [on Thursday]."

Born in Bihar in 1937, Qamar was the fifth of nine siblings, with six sisters and three brothers. After Partition, his family moved to Pakistan and settled in Hyderabad, Sindh. He went on to build a long association with cricket, first as a player and later as one of the sport’s most recognisable journalists.

Qamar played 17 first-class matches for Hyderabad, with his career stretching over seven years before ending in the 1962-63 season. A slow left-arm orthodox spinner, he was noted for dismissing all the Mohammad brothers, including Hanif Mohammad.

Career in journalism and broadcasting

He began his journalism career in Hyderabad before moving to England in the early 1960s, where he settled and worked as a freelance journalist. During his career abroad, he contributed to a number of international media organisations, including BBC, Reuters and AFP. He also worked as a broadcaster for TV New Zealand during the 1992 World Cup, which Pakistan won under Imran Khan.

Qamar had also written for Dawn since the 1980s, contributing reports and commentary. He covered several of Pakistan’s matches for the newspaper during the 1992 World Cup, including the final.

Alongside reporting, he authored and worked on several cricket books. These included Pakistan Book of Cricket, which appeared annually from 1976 to 1998-99, as well as Testing Times, Showdown and Golden Greats of Pakistan Cricket. His final book, Far More than A Game: An Autobiography of a Cricket Writer and Broadcaster, was published in 2020 and recounted his life in cricket. The memoir also covered his accounts of major controversies in the sport, including the Kerry Packer revolution, umpiring disputes and the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

Long record of covering the game

Qamar, who held a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Sindh, remained active in cricket journalism for around six decades. One of the major landmarks of his career was covering 400 Test matches across different countries, a tally he reached after watching the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test in Sharjah in 2014.

He also reported on every 50-over World Cup from 1975 to 2007. His work extended well beyond Pakistan’s matches, and over the years he witnessed several landmark moments in cricket, including Sunil Gavaskar reaching 10,000 runs, Richard Hadlee claiming his 400th wicket, Anil Kumble taking 10 wickets in an innings, and both the 1,000th and 2,000th Test matches, the latter in 2011.

Known for his warm and simple manner, Qamar Ahmed remained a familiar and respected figure in cricket circles for decades.