Saleem Malik

Saleem Malik (Urdu: سلیم ملک‎) (16 April 1963) (also known as Salim Malik) is a former Pakistani cricketer who played between 1981/82 and 1999, at one stage captaining the Pakistani cricket team. He was a right-handed wristy middle order batsman who was strong square of the wicket. His legbreak bowling was also quite effective. Despite playing more than 100 Tests he would go down in cricket history as the first of a number of international cricketers to be banned for match fixing around the start of the 21st century. Saleem is the brother-in-law of former teammate Ijaz Ahmed.^[1]

He captained Pakistan in 12 Tests, winning 7. In ODI cricket he led his country 34 times and won 21 of them.

International career

Malik played his first Test match in March 1982, against Sri Lanka at Karachi.^[2] After making 12 in his first innings he made an unbeaten 100 in the second to set up a declaration. Aged 18 years and 323 days he was at the time the second youngest player to make a century on Test debut.^[3]

During the tour of England in 1987, Malik fell for 99 at Headingley and made 102 at The Oval. He would become familiar with English conditions, playing for Essex for a couple of years during the early 1990s. He had a good season in 1991, scoring 1972 runs, the 3rd most by a non-English player for Essex.^[4] In Test cricket he performed better against England than any other of his opponents, appearing 19 times and making 1396 runs at 60.70.^[5]

One of his notable performances in One Day International cricket was an innings that he played against India in 1987.^[6] Chasing 238 in 40 overs, Pakistan were reduced to 5/161 when Saleem arrived at the crease. He scored 72 out of the remaining 77 runs required, making them from just 36 deliveries. He finished unbeaten and Pakistan won by 2 wickets with 3 balls still to spare in the match.

Match fixing

Malik captained Pakistan in tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe before being suspended from cricket having been accused of bribery. He was however found innocent and allowed to continue his career. Malik played his last Test match in January 1999 but ended his cricket career in disgrace, having been given a life ban as a result of Justice Qayyam's enquiry in May 2000.^[7]

Saleem Malik's career performance graph.

A local court in Lahore lifted the life ban imposed by the Pakistan Cricket Board on 23 October 2008. Civil judge Malik Mohammad Altaf ruled in favour of Malik and quashed the ban imposed for alleged match fixing.^[8]

He claimed to have accepted an offer by the PCB to work as the Chief Coach for country's National Cricket Academy on 3 November 2008 just days after the ban was lifted, however, the PCB denied making any such offer.^[9]

In October 2012, Saleem Malik submitted his application to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the position of batting coach. Earlier that month the PCB had placed an advertisement seeking a batting coach for the national side.^[10] He is now planning to establish a cricket academy for young cricketers in Lahore and has been doing his personal business with his long-term partner, Hamza Yusuf.^[11]

International centuries

Test centuries

Test centuries of Saleem Malik
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	100*	1	Sri Lanka	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	5 March 1982	Lost
[2]	107	5	India	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	3 January 1983	Won
[3]	116	15	England	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	12 March 1984	Drawn
[4]	102*	18	India	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	24 October 1984	Drawn
[5]	119*	21	New Zealand	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	10 December 1984	Drawn
[6]	102	41	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	6 August 1987	Drawn
[7]	102*	53	India	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	15 November 1989	Drawn
[8]	102	61	West Indies	Karachi, Pakistan	National Stadium	15 November 1990	Won
[9]	101	64	Sri Lanka	Sialkot, Pakistan	Jinnah Stadium	12 December 1991	Drawn
[10]	165	67	England	Birmingham, England	Edgbaston Cricket Ground	4 June 1992	Drawn
[11]	140	74	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Basin Reserve	17 February 1994	Won
[12]	237	79	Australia	Rawalpindi, Pakistan	Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium	5 October 1994	Drawn
[13]	143	80	Australia	Lahore, Pakistan	Gaddafi Stadium	1 November 1994	Drawn
[14]	100*	90	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	22 August 1996	Won
[15]	155	96	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	26 April 1997	Drawn

ODI centuries

One Day International centuries of Saleem Malik
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	100	59	Sri Lanka	Faisalabad, Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium	25 October 1987	Won
[2]	101	72	India	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	19 October 1988	Won
[3]	100*	91	Sri Lanka	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	24 March 1989	Won
[4]	102	95	India	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	20 October 1989	Won
[5]	102	138	Sri Lanka	Rawalpindi, Pakistan	Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium	19 January 1992	Won

International awards

One-Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	New Zealand	Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad	23 November 1984	41 (34 balls, 1x4); 1 Ct.	Pakistan won by 5 runs.[12]
2	India	Eden Gardens, Kolkata	18 February 1987	72* (36 balls, 1x4, 1x6)	Pakistan won by 2 wickets.[13]
3	Sri Lanka	Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad	25 October 1987	100 (95 balls, 10x4) ; 7–1–29–0	Pakistan won by 113 runs.[14]
4	India	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	19 October 1988	101 (124 balls, 5x4, 1x6) ; DNB, 1 Ct.	Pakistan won by 34 runs.[15]
5	Sri Lanka	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	24 March 1989	DNB ; 100* (112 balls, 4x4)	Pakistan won by 7 wickets.[16]
6	India	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	20 October 1989	102 (115 balls, 5x4) ; DNB, 1 Ct.	Pakistan won by 38 runs.[17]
7	West Indies	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore	11 November 1990	DNB ; 91* (98 balls, 8x4)	Pakistan won by 5 wickets.[18]

See also

• List of cricketers banned for match fixing

References

External links

• Saleem Malik at ESPNcricinfo