From A to Zed : A Life in Cricket

Few overseas cricketers have left as deep, graceful, and enduring an imprint on cricket as Zaheer Abbas.

Zaheer Abbas.is rightly celebrated as one of Pakistan’s greatest batters, and his relationship with the UK also occupies a special place in cricket history. England was not merely a venue where he played; it was a stage on which his artistry flourished, his reputation soared, and his legacy became woven into the fabric of British cricket culture. From majestic Test centuries – he averaged over 50 against England – to prolific county cricket seasons and a profound influence on generations of British Asian cricketers, Zaheer’s impact in the UK was huge. At a time when Pakistan was still shaping its identity on the global stage, and with cricket such an important part of the nation’s culture, he emerged as a symbol of elegance, consistency, and quiet authority. Born on 24 July, 1947, in Sialkot, mere weeks before the creation of Pakistan, Zaheer grew up in a nation finding its voice, and cricket quickly became one of its most powerful expressions of pride and unity. From a young boy who would sneak out of the house and cross the river to a makeshift ground where villagers would bowl at him for hours on end, to a bespectacled young batter who scored 274 in his first ever Test match innings in England, to becoming a county stalwart with Gloucestershire, to playing in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, to scoring a century of centuries – the only Asian batter to have done so – in a Test match against great rivals India, to captaining his country, to marrying an Indian girl, and to becoming just the third cricketer to hold the role of ICC president, Zaheer’s is a cricketing life like no other. In this definitive autobiography, he talks us through the highs and lows, the friendships and rivalries from a truly fascinating period of cricketing history, with giants of cricket like Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Geoffrey Boycott, Dennis Lillee and the mighty West Indies, graced the game.