Pakistani Cricket Players: Mohammad Yousuf

Mohammad Yousuf Biography

Source(google.com.pk)
Full name: Mohammad Yousuf
Born: 27th August 1974, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Batting: Right-hand batsman
Bowling: Right-arm off-break
Biography: He changed his name from Yousuf Youhana on converting to Islam in September 2005
Teams: Pakistan (Test: 1997/98-2010); Pakistan (ODI: 1997/98-2010/11); Asian Cricket Council XI (ODI: 2004/05-2007); Pakistan (World Cup: 1999-2006/07); Pakistan (Int Twenty20: 2006-2010); Bahawalpur (Main FC: 1996/97); Water and Power Development Authority (Main FC: 1997/98-2009/10); Lahore City (Main FC: 1997/98); Lahore Blues (Main FC: 2000/01); Pakistan International Airlines (Main FC: 2001/02); Lahore (Main FC: 2003/04); Lancashire (Main FC: 2008); Lahore Shalimar (Main FC: 2010/11); Warwickshire (Main FC: 2011); Bahawalpur (Main ListA: 1996/97); Pakistan International Airlines (Main ListA: 1999/00-2001/02); Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (Main ListA: 2002/03); Lahore (Main ListA: 2003/04); Water and Power Development Authority (Main ListA: 2007/08-2008/09); Lancashire (Main ListA: 2008); Lahore Lions (Main ListA: 2010/11); Warwickshire (Main ListA: 2011); Lahore Lions (Main Twenty20: 2004/05-2012/13); Islamabad Leopards (Main Twenty20: 2009/10); Pakistanis (Other FC: 1997/98-2006); Pakistan (Other FC: 1997/98-2010); Punjab (Pakistan) (Other FC: 2007/08); Pakistan A (Other ListA: 1997/98); Pakistanis (Other ListA: 1997/98-2010); Pakistan (Other ListA: 1997/98-2010/11); Asian Cricket Council XI (Other ListA: 2004/05-2007); Pakistan (Other Twenty20: 2006-2010); All teams.

Test Career Batting and Fielding (1997/98-2010)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 SRate Ct
Pakistan 90 156 12 7530 223 52.29 24 33 52.39 65
Test Career Bowling (2000/01)
Balls Mdns Runs Wkts BB Ave 5wI 10wM SRate Econ
Pakistan 6 0 3 0 0-3 3.00
First-Class Career Batting and Fielding (1996/97-2011)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct
Overall 141 239 20 10505 223 47.96 30 51 84
First-Class Career Bowling (1997/98-2001/02)
Balls Mdns Runs Wkts BB Ave 5wI 10wM SRate Econ
Overall 18 0 24 0 0-3 8.00
ODI Career Batting and Fielding (1997/98-2010/11)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 SRate Ct
Pakistan 281 267 40 9554 141* 42.08 15 62 74.91 55
Asian Cricket Council XI 7 6 0 166 66 27.66 0 2 87.83 3
Overall 288 273 40 9720 141* 41.71 15 64 75.10 58
ODI Career Bowling (2004-2006/07)
Balls Mdns Runs Wkts BB Ave 4wI 5wI SRate Econ
Pakistan 2 0 1 1 1-0 1.00 0 0 2.00 3.00
List A Career Batting and Fielding (1996/97-2011)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct
Overall 338 322 47 11026 141* 40.09 15 75 70
List A Career Bowling (2001/02-2006/07)
Balls Mdns Runs Wkts BB Ave 4wI 5wI SRate Econ
Overall 8 0 13 1 1-0 13.00 0 0 8.00 9.75
International Twenty20 Career Batting and Fielding (2006-2010)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 SRate Ct
Pakistan 3 3 0 50 26 16.66 0 0 116.27 1
Twenty20 Career Batting and Fielding (2004/05-2012/13)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 SRate Ct
Overall 27 22 3 367 57* 19.31 0 1 108.90 11
Twenty20 Career Bowling (2006/07)
Balls Mdns Runs Wkts BB Ave 4wI 5wI SRate Econ
Lahore Lions 1 0 1 0 0-1 6.00

Mohammad Yousuf (formerly Yousuf Youhana, born 27 August 1974, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) is a Pakistani cricketer who has been a member of the Pakistani national cricket team since 1998. He is best known for his achievement in 2006 when he broke the great West Indian batsman, Sir Vivian Richards', world record for the most Test runs in a single calendar year. Prior to his conversion to Islam in 2005, Yousuf was one of the few Christians to play in the Pakistan national cricket team. He made his Test debut against South Africa at Durban and ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Harare. He has scored over 9,000 ODI runs at an average of 43.63 (2rd highest batting average among Pakistani batsmen after Zaheer Abbas and 6,770 Test runs at an average of 55.49 (highest batting average amongst all Pakistani batsmen) with 23 Test centuries. He has the record of scoring the most runs without being dismissed in ODIs, 405 against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in 2002-03. He has also scored a 23-ball fifty in ODIs, and a 68-ball hundred. In Tests he has scored a 27-ball fifty, which is 3rd fastest by any player. He was top scorer during the successive years of 2002 and 2003 in the world in ODIs. In 2004, he scored a memorable 111 against the Australians in the Boxing Day Test. In December 2005, he scored 223 against England at Lahore, also earning him the man of the match award. Seven months later in July 2006, when Pakistan toured England, he scored 202 and 48 in the first Test, again earning himself the man of the match award. He followed up with 192 in the third Test at Headingley and 128 in the final Test at the Oval. Yousuf was named CNN-IBN.s Cricketer of the Year for 2006, ahead of the likes of Australian captain Ricky Ponting, West Indies Brian Lara, Australian spinner Shane Warne, South Africa.s bowling spearhead Makhaya Ntini and Sri Lanka.s Muttiah Muralitharan. He was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 2007 edition. Yousuf became the fourth recipient of the ICC 'Test Cricketer of the Year' award for 2007, he scored 944 runs at an average of 94.40 including five centuries and two fifties in just 10 innings and that was enough to be awarded the honour ahead of Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting. Yousuf was also named in the 2007 Test team of the Year alongside compatriot Mohammad Asif. A year that started on a promising note, Yousuf carried it forward to break two world records both held earlier by West Indian great Sir Vivian Richards. The 32-year-old smashed an unparalleled 1788 runs in just 11 Test matches with the help of nine centuries . his second record . taking him beyond the Windies great yet again. Yousuf is known for his ability to score runs at exceptional rate through his great technique and composed strokeplay. Although capable of hitting the ball hard, Yousuf is quick between the wickets, although he is prone to being run out. Yousuf is a skillful infielder, with a report prepared in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the ninth highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman. He is also distinguished by his characteristic celebration after hitting one hundred runs for his country, where he prostrates in thankfulness to Allah in the direction of Mecca. He has observed this act (known as the Sajdah) recently since his conversion to Islam.

Until his conversion to Islam in 2005, Mohammad Yousuf (formely known as Yousuf Youhana) was one of a handful of Christians to play for Pakistan. After a difficult debut against South Africa in 1997-98, he quickly established himself as a stylish world-class batsman, and a pillar of Pakistan's middle order, alongside Inzamam-ul-Haq. He is no sluggard, but gathers his runs through orthodox, composed strokeplay, unlike some of his colleagues who seldom hint at permanence. He is particularly strong driving through the covers and flicking wristily off his legs and brings with him as decadent and delicious a backlift as any in the game. A tendency to overbalance when playing across his front leg can get him into trouble. He excels at both versions of the game, and in one-day cricket can score 20 or 30 runs before anyone notices. He is quick between the wickets although not necessarily the best judge of a single. There had been questions about his temperament as batsman when the pressure is on, but between 2004 and 2005, he began to silence critics. First came a spellbindingly languid century against the Australians in Melbourne, as captain to boot, where he ripped into Shane Warne like few Pakistani batsmen have before or since. A century in the cauldron of Kolkatta followed but he ended the year with possibly his most important knock: a double century against England at Lahore so easy on the eye, you almost didn't notice it. With Inzamam missing through injury for parts of the innings, Yousuf displayed an unusual responsibility, eschewing the waftiness that has previously blighted him. In 2006, Yousuf truly came of age in a record-breaking year. He began by plundering India and continued in England, not just scoring under pressure, but scoring big. A double ton at Lord's was followed by another big hundred at Headingly and the Oval. He rounded off a fantastic year with four hundreds in three Tests against the West Indies, a feat that took him past Viv Richards's long-standing record of most Test runs in a calendar year and also saw him establish the record for most Test hundreds (9) in a year. With Inzamam nearing a natural end, the credentials of Yousuf as Pakistan's premier batsman are impressive.
He changed his name from Yousuf Youhana on converting to Islam in September 2005.

Early career
He was born Yousuf Youhana, a Christian, in Lahore in 1974; and like most Christian minorities in Pakistan, who had converted from Hindu untouchables in the 19th century, he was born into poverty. His father worked at the railway station and, thus, his family lived in the Railway Colony. Yousuf took to cricket from a young age, but unlike his peers he could not afford a bat; so he had to make do by swatting a taped tennis ball around, tossed by his brother, with stray wooden planks.
When he was 12, he was spotted by a local gymkhana who asked him to play for them. As he grew up, he joined the Forman Christian College and played for their cricket team as well, before giving up for almost a year in 1994, when he was 20. Although he was and probably realised that he was very good at cricket, he never gave it a serious thought. A steady income was always at the top of the priority list; never did the thought of playing for the country cross his mind. “I just wanted a job in an organisation with a First-Class cricket team, and to make a living,” were as far as his humble ambitions went, as quoted by Wisden. Yousuf had found work at a tailor’s shop when a local club hauled him up when they were short of players. Yousuf stepped in to make the numbers, and went ahead of score more than hundred of them. It led to a season in the Bradford League, which was a stepping stone into First Class cricket.

Yousuf was ignored by mighty and pristine Lahore team in the mid-nineties due to his faith and background. Thus, he went ahead to play for Bahawalpur in 1996. Within a few months, Lahore realised their folly and requested him to play for them in the 1997-98 season. Within no time of making the switch, Yousuf was picked in the Pakistan squad for a tour of South Africa and made his Test debut at Durban in February 1998. He had thus become only the fourth Christian to play cricket for Pakistan after of Wallis Mathias, Antao D’Souza and Duncan Sharpe, an Anglo-Pakistani.
And so it began. The Pakistani run machine was switched on; its first target was the Zimbabwe team. In his first two innings against the African nation in both Tests and ODIs, Yousuf scored half-centuries. He also went on to hold the record of scoring the most runs without being dismissed in ODIs when he hit 405 runs unscathed against Zimbabwe in 2002–2003, including a 23-ball fifty and 68-ball hundred. He was also the top scorer in the world in the shorter format in 2002 and 2003. In that same period, he blazed his way to a 27-ball fifty in a Test match against South Africa, which is the fourth fastest by any player. Yousuf soon formed a formidable Pakistan middle order along with Inzamam-ul-Haq and Younis Khan that pulverised bowling attacks around the world.
Conversion to Islam
In Ramchandra Guha’s book, Corner of a Foreign Field, the author mentions an incident involving British writer Geoffrey Moorehouse, who came across a gifted Christian cricketer playing in Quetta. “Moorehouse asked why he didn’t move to cricketing centres like Lahore or Karachi to better his chances of playing for Pakistan. The boy’s reply was revealing: ‘all the best jobs in the country went to Muslims and no Christian had a hope of getting anywhere in cricket — not like in India, where Roger Binny has made the test team.’”
Yousuf’s faith as a Christian was always a taboo topic right from the beginning, but perhaps never came to the fore in the initial stages of his career; at least nothing significant was reported about it. He had married a Christian woman and things seemed normal. But suddenly, one fine day in 2005, news broke that Yousuf had converted to Islam. Yousuf Youhana had become Mohammad Yousuf. The earlier clean shaven look was replaced by a flowing beard that grew with years. His family was shocked and expressed anger at the decision. The Daily Times reported that Yousuf had been banned from his home. “I don’t want to give Yousuf my name after what he has done,” his mother is reported to have said.
Yousuf confirmed that he attended preaching sessions held by the Tablighi Jamaat — Pakistan’s largest non-political religious grouping — where teammate Saeed Anwar and his brother used to preach. Rumours started circulating that he had been pressured into the change by a team with increasingly devout Islamic beliefs. However, Yousuf said that he had converted out of his own free will with no external pressure. “I cannot tell you what a great feeling it is,” he told the BBC, also adding that “the discipline and focus Islam has instilled have filtered into my batting.”
Purple patch

Whether it was his change in belief or not, it seemed to have worked. In July 2006, when Pakistan toured England, Yousuf essayed three innings of extreme class: he scored 202 runs in the first Test at Lord’s, rescuing Pakistan from 68 for four, batting seven hours 48 minutes in an innings that included 26 fours and a six, and bowed his forehead to the turf in the direction of Mecca; at Headingley, Yousuf fell eight short of his third double century in four Tests against England (he had scored one at Lahore the previous year) after a mix-up with Inzamam, but not before he shared a mammoth partnership of 363 with Younis Khan which was the fifth-highest for any wicket against England, Pakistan’s highest against England, the third-best in a Headingley Test, and the biggest in all Test cricket in a losing cause; and finally, in a controversial final Test at The Oval where the Pakistan team was accused of ball-tampering by umpire Darrell Hair which eventually led to a walk-out, Yousuf gave the Pakistani fans something else to remember about with 128 in 236 balls, including 18 boundaries.