The year retired Pakistan leg-spinning icon Abdul Qadir took Melbourne grade cricket by storm

In 1998, Carlton football boss John Elliott helped lure 43-year-old Pakistan leg-spinning icon Abdul Qadir to the suburb’s cricket club. What unfolded was one of the greatest seasons in Melbourne grade cricket history.

When Pat Cummins this weekend raises a trophy named after Abdul Qadir to the heavens, dozens of retired Australian club cricketers will lament how hard it was to hit the leg-spinning legend in the same direction.

For winning the Test series against Pakistan, Cummins will receive the Benaud-Qadir Trophy, appropriately named after two leg-spinning icons, Australia’s Richie Benaud and Pakistan’s twirling, taunting magician Qadir, the man credited with keeping the craft alive in the pre-Shane Warne era.

This season is the 25th anniversary of one of quirkiest, most audacious and successful operations ever seen in club cricket in Australia when Qadir, who took 236 wickets in 67 Tests, was somehow lured from Lahore to Melbourne for one record-breaking summer when he took an astonishing 72 wickets at 15.87 for Carlton.

Qadir, who died age 63 in 2019, won the Jack Ryder Medal for the player of the competition in a canter and sounded suspiciously like a man with Lahore’s version of Cash Converters on his mind when he asked, “is it made of pure gold?’.

Leg spin legends Shane Warne (L) and Abdul Qadir in Melbourne.

Pat Cummins and Shan Masood with the Benaud-Qadir Trophy. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Qadir’s recruitment started with a throwaway line from Carlton football boss John Elliott to Carlton’s club cricket hierarchy asking why their team wasn’t winning trophies.

They claimed they lacked flair players so Elliott offered to pay for one. Carlton officials took the audacious step of flying to Lahore to chase the ultimate flair player – Qadir. The trouble was he was 43 so they had to watch him bowl in the nets to be convinced he still had it all.

After Qadir showcased his many tricks they agreed on a $40,000 fee plus a flat in Brunswick and over he came for his season of destruction where he would often bowl from one end all afternoon.

“He could do things that others could not do,’’ said Qadir’s Carlton captain Ian Wrigglesworth.

“He could spin a ball at different paces both ways. For district cricketers who had never seen him before he just bamboozled them. I would love to have seen him play against them a second time.

Abdul Qadir on the phone at Carlton Cricket Club.

Legendary Pakistan bowler Abdul Qadir.

“He had two wrong ’uns. One was big turning. One small turning. When he got a wicket he got so up and about. His next ball would just fizz. Arms and legs went everywhere when he bowled.’’

Qadir took his teammates on a very special magic carpet ride but – fittingly for a man who once withdrew from a tour of New Zealand because he feared his wife was being possessed by the devil – he retained an air of mystery. He was respectful but never sang the team song.

“We never really knew what he did between Saturdays. He was not a great team man but we did use him on Tuesday nights at coaching when young leg-spinners would come from around Melbourne and he would be very helpful.

“He was 43 so he was a lot older than our blokes. He was paid to play and get wickets which he did. He was a reasonably strong personality. I stood at first slip most of the time and you would just wind him up and let him go. Let’s be honest. He was here to do a job.’’

A job he did very well.

Originally published as The year retired Pakistan leg-spinning icon Abdul Qadir took Melbourne grade cricket by storm