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Like Asif Iqbal Pakistan originally fancied Majid Khan as an opening
bowler and he took the new ball against Australia in his first Test in
Karachi in October 1964. Perhaps the selectors thought it was in the
genes. His father, Jehangir Khan, had bowled with the new ball for India
and once killed a sparrow which was stuffed and put in the Lord's
museum. Majid was stuffed if he was going to spend his life as a bowler,
though. Although he bowled with enough venom to make Australia's Bill
Lawry hit his own wicket, when he reappeared in England in 1967 it was
as a batsman. He had scored 100 not out for Pakistan under 25 against
Mike Brearley's MCC under-25 side in Lahore that winter and 95 in Dacca.
He made few Test runs in England but scored a spectacular century in
Swansea which got him to Glamorgan for many years.
He captained
Cambridge University and then began to make runs at Test level: 158 in
Melbourne in 1972-73, 110 against New Zealand in Auckland. He captained
Pakistan in an all Welsh affair when Tony Lewis took England there in
1972-73 and scored 99 in Karachi. That was followed by 98 at the Oval in
1972, 100 against West Indies at Karachi in 1974-75 and 98 and 112 in
the same Test in New Zealand in 1976-77. By then he was opening the
batting, usually in a cream-coloured trilby sunhat which he eventually
gave to Dennis Lillee. Majid had challenged Lillee to knock it off with a
bouncer and Lillee did so. In the 1975 World Cup Majid took over the
captaincy when Asif Iqbal was injured. He made 84 against Sri Lanka at
Trent Bridge, then 81 against West Indies at the Oval in the semi-final
of 1979. (Bob Harragan)
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