Jafri: A scorer with an enviable record
Karachi-based official has covered 198 one-day internationals in Sharjah as well as the two in Dubai
Dubai : Syed Mohammad Ali Jafri is UAE's most experienced cricket scorer. He has recorded all the glorious moments at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium and has the honour of scoring in 207 one-day international matches.
Soft-spoken Jafri is a familiar face in the press box and can always be seen engrossed in front of his huge score book, providing all details of the match.
He has scored in the 198 one-day matches in Sharjah and reached the double hundred mark in Morocco when the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series staged the one-day series there.
Jafri has also scored in the two one-day matches in Dubai too.
"I never thought I will score in over 200 one-day matches and I am happy that I could record many glorious moments of the game," remarked Jafri, who lives in Karachi and flies in for every international match here.
"I came to Sharjah in 1979 to take up a job when the late Qasim Noorani asked me to start scoring. I have scored from the very first match at the Sharjah Stadium on April 3. 1981 till the last one-day match between Zimbabwe and Pakistan on April 10, 2003," he remarked proudly.
Jafri turns nostalgic when asked about his best matches that he scored in Sharjah. "Though the match in which Javed Miandad hit the last ball for a six is considered as the best in Sharjah, I regard the match between West Indies and Sri Lanka during the Champions Trophy in 1995 as my best. West Indies could beat Sri Lanka by only four runs after piling up 333 through Brian Lara's 169. Sri Lanka could muster only 329 despite Hashan Tillakaratne's knock of 104. It was a high scoring match and a scorer's delight," he said. Jafri can recall details of every spell and innings including the date without a mistake.
"The best bowling I recorded here was of Imran Khan's 6 for 14 against India in March 1985 and Basit Ali's unbeaten 127 off 79 against West Indies in the final of Champions Trophy on November 5, 1993," said Jafri, who began scoring from early seventies for Jehangir West Cricket Club in Karachi.
"The great Zaheer Abbas, Nasim Ul Ghani and Gulam Abbas hail from my locality. I began by scoring for Karachi Cricket Association and got to score in the famous 1976 Pakistan versus New Zealand match in which opener Majid Khan hit a century before lunch," he said.
"I am indebted to Noorani, my brothers Ibne Haider and Ali Anwar Jafri [of Sharjah Cricket Council] and Asif Iqbal for the support and opportunities to score in one-day matches," said Jafri, who even at the age of 59 is very sharp to note down every detail of the match.
