Five present Pakistani cities – Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Peshawar – boast of possessing more than one Test ground while six others – Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhupura – have one each
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akistan has so far played a total of 465 Tests, which include 164 home Test matches at 17 different venues located in 12 cities. Pakistan is unique in that one of its home Test venues, along with one stadium, are now part of another country. At the Dhaka Stadium in Dhaka, Pakistan hosted 7 Tests between 1955 and 1969, while Bangladesh has subsequently staged 9 Tests at this venue after renaming it the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Five present Pakistani cities, namely Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Peshawar boast of possessing more than one Test ground while six others, that is Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhupura have only one Test stadium each. Six of Pakistan’s Test centres have hosted just a solitary Test while two venues have been home to more than 40 Tests each.
Karachi’s Test Arenas
Karachi is one of the five cities of Pakistan where Tests have been played on more than one ground. The two centres are the National Stadium Karachi, which was renamed as the National Bank Cricket Arena in October 1922, and the Defence Cricket Stadium whose name has undergone two mutations, initially to Defence Housing Authority Stadium and then, in 2008, to the Southend Cricket Club Stadium.
National Stadium Karachi (NSK) /
National Bank Cricket Arena (NBCA)
The Indian cricket team was scheduled to tour Pakistan from December 1954. There was great enthusiasm in the public about this visit and large crowds were expected to watch the matches between these arch rivals. The fifth and final Test of the series was scheduled to be played at Karachi from 26th February to 1st March. Karachi was the capital of the country but its only reasonable cricket ground was the one at the Karachi Gymkhana which unfortunately had very limited seating capacity for the fans. In November 1954 an urgent meeting was arranged at the office cum residence of Mr. AT Naqvi, the Chief Commissioner of Karachi, to look into ways of addressing this problem.
The honorary treasurer of the BCCP was Kafiluddin Ahmed a diehard cricket enthusiast who was also the Superintending Engineer of the Pakistan Public Works Department ( Pak PWD ). Invited to this meeting, he proposed a radical solution by offering the PWD’s services to build a new cricketing facility in the city in the short period of barely three months that remained before the start of the Karachi Test. After much persuasion he won the Commissioner’s approval. The PWD was provided a plot of land measuring 174.5 acres on the Dalmia Cement Factory Road, for a grand National Stadium project, of which the cricket ground would be the initial construction. The entire project also envisaged hockey and football grounds, thirteen tennis courts, practice grounds, an Olympic stadium, a club house and residential facilities. Its approved budget was Rs 14.6 million.
The cricket stadium had to be built quickly at rapid speed. In fact such was Kafiluddin’s sense of urgency that his son Hyderuddin, who had accompanied his father to the Commissioner’s house, recalled “once Abbu got Mr Naqvi’s nod to go ahead, he took my hand and whisked us out of the Chief Commissioner’s office, not even waiting for the sharbat (cold drink) that was on offer.”
The same evening he began making phone calls to get the project underway. The construction contract was awarded to Gammon Pakistan Ltd. and Sheikh Gulzar Ali and work soon began at a feverish pace with over 2000 people engaged on a daily basis. Kafiluddin conducted a daily inspection visit to the site, and with help from the officers of the PWD, this monumental task was completed in just over three months, at a cost of Rs. 2.2 million. This was a remarkable achievement, defying all odds, and reflects the dynamism and drive of Kafiluddin who was suitably described by the famous commentator Omar Kureishi as a pocket dynamo.
The Pakistan-India Test was the first cricket match to be played at the newly constructed stadium. The four day Test was played from 26th February to 1st March 1955 and proved to be a great public success, attracting a full house, with the rush of people and vehicles causing traffic jams all the way to the Jail Road. The match was temporarily interrupted by rain on the third day and eventually ended in a draw, but before that happened it was graced on its second day by a visit from the Turkish President, Celal Bayar, who was on a state visit to Pakistan. He was the first, and to this date, the only Turkish President ever to witness a cricket Test match. Sadly, the Turkish President’s visit is one that has receded from public memory.
The stadium had a matting wicket for this match and most of the stands were either open to the skies or covered by temporary marquees. In 1959 the NSK became the first stadium to host an American president for a cricket match when President Eisenhower, along with President Ayub of Pakistan, watched a part of the fourth day’s play between Pakistan and Australia. Incidentally, this Test was also the last at the NSK to be played on a matting wicket. The Australian captain Richie Benaud made a special request to President Ayub for the laying of a turf wicket and Ayub issued the necessary orders on the spot.
Pakistan has an enviable record at the NSK. It was undefeated in its first 34 Test matches at this venue until the winning streak was broken by England in December 2000. In a disputed finish, the umpire Steve Bucknor allowed the game to go on past sunset.
The English captain Nasser Husain is on record as saying that it was pitch black in the middle by the time the match finished with the light so bad that he remembered Pakistani fielders running one way in the outfield while the ball went in the opposite direction. It is highly unlikely that the light meters in vogue today would have allowed the match to continue that late.
As yet, Pakistan has played 47 Tests at the NSK winning 23 and losing only 3, while 21 have been drawn. The highest number of Tests played at the NSK by a visiting team is 9, by Australia.
The National Stadium has many records to its credit. It has recorded the fewest runs ever scored in a full day of Test cricket, when on the first day of the Test against Australia in October 1956, only 95 runs were scored during the whole day’s play. Australia batted first and were all out for 80 after which Pakistan limped to 15 for 2 wickets by the close. The 4th day of the same match was only marginally better with just 112 runs being scored, as Australia went from 138 for 6 to 187 all out in their second innings and Pakistan reached 63 for 1. Four of the top six instances of the fewest runs in a full day of Test cricket have been recorded at the NSK.
The October 1956 Test was also unusual for having two rest days in a five day Test, which therefore ran for seven days. The total run aggregate for this match, which Pakistan won by 9 wickets, was 535 runs from 303.1 overs, at a tedious, sleep inducing rate, of 1.76 runs per over.
The highest team score in an innings at the NSK is 765 for 6 declared by Pakistan against Sri Lanka in 2009, which also contained the highest individual innings score at the NSK of 313 by Younis Khan. The lowest team innings score continues to be Australia’s 80 in 1956.
The best ever bowling figures in a Test innings here are Imran’s Khan’s superlative effort of 8 wickets for 60 against India in December 1982, while the best bowling figures for an entire Test match are Fazal Mahmood’s 13 wickets for 114 runs in 75 overs against Australia in 1956.
The highest successful run chase at the NSK was in the memorable match against Australia in September 1994, when Inzamam and Mushtaq Ahmed added 57 unbeaten runs for the tenth wicket to take Pakistan to a winning total of 315 for 9. The winning runs came when the Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy missed an easy stumping against Inzamam and let the ball through for four byes.
The most successful batsman at the ground has been Javed Miandad with a tally of 1393 runs from 17 Test matches at an average of 58.04, including 3 centuries and 8 fifties. The most successful bowler has been Abdul Qadir with 59 wickets in 13 Tests at an average of 26.63, followed by Imran Khan with 51 wickets from 11 Tests at an average of 18.39.
A total of 90 Test centuries have been scored at the NSK including one triple century and seven double centuries. Saleem Malik with four hundreds is the leading century maker at the NSK. A tally of 5 wickets in an innings has been taken on 54 occasions, with Fazal reaching this milestone four times. There are also 8 instances of bowlers taking 10 wickets in a match.
The highest Test partnership recorded at the NSK is a 437 run stand for the 4th wicket in 2009 by the Sri Lankan pair of Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera.
Saleem Yousuf holds the wicketkeeping record for most dismissals in a Test innings at the NSK with five scalps versus Sri Lanka in 1985. He also has the highest number of dismissals in an entire Test match at the NSK, with seven dismissals against Sri Lanka on two occasions, first in 1982 and then again in 1985. Another wicketkeeping achievement is Kamran Akmal’s feat of not conceding a single bye in Sri Lanka’s total of 644 for 7 wickets declared in 2009.
In it’s 75 year history the NSK has witnessed many memorable scenes of Pakistani greatness. Fazal Mahmood and Khan Mohammad bowling 53 overs unchanged through the entire Australian innings of merely 80 in 1956, the opening stand of 249 runs between two Test debutants Khalid Ibadullah and Abdul Kadir against Australia in 1964, Majid Khan’s century before lunch against New Zealand in 1976, Imran’s blistering pace as he mowed down 8 Indian batsmen for just 60 runs in 1982 have all left indelible marks on our collective memory.
It was at the NSK in November 2006, in a Test against the West Indies, that Mohammad Yusuf broke Viv Richards record for the highest number of Test runs in a calendar year, overtaking Richards tally of 1710 to reach 1788 runs. Yusuf’s century in each innings in the match also gave him 9 hundreds for the year, beating the previous mark of 7. It was again the NSK which saw Pakistan recover from 39 for 6 on the opening day against India in 2006 through an attacking century by Kamran Akmal, before going on to record a comprehensive win by 341 runs. In 2022 Babar Azam, with an epic innings of 196, led a Pakistani rearguard action where they batted for 171 overs across almost two days to stave off defeat against a strong Australian side. Indeed the NSK has been rightly dubbed as the fortress of Pakistani cricket.
The stadium has recently been extensively renovated with the addition of a second pavilion building and many other new features and enclosures. It can now house over 34000 people.
Interestingly, the NSK has also been the venue for sporting events other than cricket. In 1976 it staged a wrestling bout between Pakistan’s Akram Pahelwan and the Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki, which resulted in a painfully embarrassing defeat for the much hyped Pakistani stalwart whose shoulder was dislocated during the contest. In 1982 it hosted the Quaid-e-Azam International Cup football tournament during which 21 matches were played at this venue.
Cultural ceremonies hosted by the NSK include the ‘takht nashini’ or accession celebration in January 1958, of Prince Karim Aga Khan, the 49th Imam of the Ismaili community. The NSK has also been the chosen site for many ‘Aalami Mushairas’ (World Urdu Poetry recitals) that have been held here, a practice first initiated in 1989.
Religious events, too, have been held at the NSK, including a visit by the Imam of the holy Kaaba in 1976, who led Friday prayers in an adjacent ground with the crowd spilling over into the NSK. Pope John Paul 11 held a Mass service at the NSK in 1981 during a brief three hour stop over in Karachi.
Southend Cricket Club Stadium
This is Karachi’s second Test cricket arena. It has staged only a solitary Test, a feature that it shares with 5 other venues in Pakistan and 21 internationally, to date. Originally called the Defence Cricket Stadium when first established in 1992, it was renamed as the Defence Housing Authority Stadium in 2005, before finally acquiring its present name in 2008.
This stadium hosted its first and only Test between Pakistan and Zimbabwe in December 1993. This was the first Test between the two countries and both captains, Waqar Younis of Pakistan and Andy Flower of Zimbabwe, were leading their countries for the first time.
Pakistan crawled to 423 for 8 wickets from 155.2 overs in over two days of dreary batting on a slow wicket. Zimbabwe replied with an equally tediously compiled 289 from 116.1 overs. Leading from the front Waqar produced an inspired display of fast bowling, exhibiting incandescent pace and accuracy, to pick up 7 wickets for 91 runs.
Pakistan increased the tempo in their second knock, hurriedly putting up 131 for 4 on the board, at five runs an over, setting Zimbabwe a target of 266 runs from 68 overs. The task proved too tall for Zimbabwe who had no answer to Waqar’s speed and reverse swing, crumbling to just 134 with Waqar again the destroyer in chief with 6 for 44. Of Waqar’s 13 wickets in this Test 7 were out lbw while 5 were clean bowled. Five of his victims did not even trouble the scorer, lasting a total of 25 deliveries between them.
No centuries were scored in this match with Shoaib Mohammad emerging as the top scorer with his first innings knock of 81. There was no century partnership either in the match, with the highest being a 95 run opening stand, between Aamer Sohail and Shoaib Mohammad, in Pakistan’s first innings. Andy Flower excelled behind the wickets with 4 catches in Pakistan’s opening knock.
From a spectator’s perspective the Southend Club Cricket Stadium is a relatively small arena that can seat about 8000 people. Though it has not held a Test match since December 1993, it has hosted many women’s internationals and is still on the ICC’s approved list of Pakistani Test cricket grounds.
Test cricket began 98 years ago in 1877. Since then over 2500 Tests have been played on 123 grounds. The highest number of Test grounds in any given country is India with 29 approved Test venues. Next is Pakistan with 16 Test grounds, followed by the West Indies with 12, and then Australia and South Africa Africa with 11 each. England, the birthplace of cricket, just reaches double digits with 10 Test match centres. Afghanistan is the only Test playing country without a home ground, while the UAE, despite not being an approved Test playing nation, has hosted 38 Tests serving as a neutral Test venue for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.
