On the second day of the second Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Colombo, Younis Khan became the first Pakistani to take 100 Test catches.
It was not a difficult catch, about as simple as they come at slip, two left-arm spinners combining to create this little piece of history – Rangana Herath edging Abdur Rehman.
It was a low-key moment, as all fielding landmarks tend to be. Not too long ago, there was no such thing as a fielding landmark, so the fact that there is any kind of acknowledgement these days is progress.
Pakistan at least should make a bigger deal out of it, marking as it does belated admission into an already overcrowded, global community.
Top wicket-takers and top run-scorers they have; top catchers? Not even close.
Younis may be the first Pakistani, but he is the 32nd man in the history of the game to get there. To the rest of the world, it is no major achievement.
There are 11 Australians in that list, eight Englishmen, four each from the West Indies and India, two South Africans and one each from Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
It is a list in which every major Test-playing country has long had a representative. That Pakistan has only now produced a representative is mostly an indictment of the casualness with which it has treated fielding institutionally.
A long time ago, it was easy to use the generally grassless, bumpy grounds a lot of the country’s players grew up on as a valid excuse. Fielding was an accident waiting to happen.
Even now, with so many players starting cricket on the streets, the excuse holds true to some degree.
But once a player has been identified as a prospect, at the national or domestic level, this becomes less and less valid. There are decent, well-nurtured grounds available in most major cities. Not having specialist coaches at lower levels is a problem, but the most important thing about fielding is that the desire has to come from within. The best fielders are generally those who love it.
Pakistan has improved in the last few years. Newer players, such as Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad, are genuinely good, committed fielders. Azhar Ali is an excellent close-in specialist for spinners. But with too many, fielding remains a type of servitude.
That was confirmed earlier this year by Julien Fountain, who, until recently, was Pakistan’s fielding coach. He outlined the common excuses players made to avoid training for sliding and diving: too old, do not want to risk injury; on tour, do not want to risk injury in a series; how about catching practice instead; how about tomorrow?
It has always been the Pakistani way that immortals bowl, mortals bat and, well, yeah, the rest field.
Still, though, not even one in that list until now? India, another country not entirely convinced that fielding is worth human attention, has four there, including, in Rahul Dravid, the world’s most prolific catcher.
Younis is not the first brilliant slip catcher Pakistan has had – or necessarily the most brilliant.
Majid Khan’s slip catching has always evoked the same romance-tinged awe his batting did, both built on casual, unrehearsed and brilliant coordination.
He would have had more than 70 catches had Pakistan played more Tests in his earliest years, or had they had better fast bowlers when he first arrived.
Wallis Mathias was their first real specialist in the slips. He took, on average, more than a catch per match, which, for a side of abysmal catchers in the 50s and 60s, is a remarkable rate.
It is no coincidence that Matthias was rigorously coached at school in Karachi by a prominent early sports coach, Jacob Harris. In training, Harris would fine his wards money for every catch they dropped.
Javed Miandad would have reached the landmark long ago had he confined his innate fielding genius to one position. But he loved fielding and was a good catcher anywhere.
But probably the greatest Pakistani slipper ever was the man who seemed most ill-equipped for it. Every Inzamam-ul-Haq catch at slip was beautiful to watch, because it was impossible to understand how he did it.
His body was lumbering in every which way, and yet his arms and hands moved in a blur when a chance came his way.
He ended on 81 catches and would easily have topped 100 had he not operated slap bang in the middle of an era when two great fast bowlers, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, had rendered the slip catch redundant as a mode of dismissal.
Younis is less instinctive and more practised. Sometimes he is spectacular, but mostly, he is very much the modern slipper: efficient and safe.
By dint of being the first to 100, though, he is something far bigger. He is a pioneer.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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