Pakistan tour of West Indies in 1958
By Adam Scott, Cricketwindies
Pakistans tour of the West Indies would become one of the most renowned cricket tours in Pakistan's cricket history. As a nation, they had only been involved in test matches since December 1952 and so had yet to make a major breakthrough. In early 1958, this would change as the historic test matches would go on to cement Pakistanis place as a team to watch in test match cricket.
The West Indies cricket team, also known as the Windies, are a multi-national team made from players from around the Caribbean. At this time in history they had not yet made the mark they would within the 1970’s, but had been making a few waves, having beaten the England team in 1950.
The tour of Pakistan within the West indies would become a memorable test, and would be noted for the high scoring of Hanif Mohammad, who would achieve the impressive feat of scoring 337 in 970 minutes in Bridgetown. Ultimately, the West Indies would win the tour 3-1 and would go into to even more victories in their career, becoming one of the strongest sides in the world from the mid 70’s all the way up to the 1990’s. Pakistan would also go on to greater successes and the test tour of the West Indies can be seen as a turning point in their careers.
The Pakistani team was well-received, with many of the games having high attendance. The first of the five test matches played in Bridgetown, would end up as a draw, while the second, played at Port of Spain, would go to the West Indies, winning by 120 runs. Next up would be in Kingston, where once again the West Indies team were victorious over Pakistan, winning by an innings and 174 runs. Things were not looking to good for the Pakistani team as they also went on to lose the fourth test match, played in Georgetown. They would lose by 8 wickets. It would be in the final test match where the Pakistani team would finally rally and go on to victory. Revisiting the site of their third loss, in Port Of Spain; Pakistan and their team captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar would finally fight back and head to a victory by an innings and 1 run. Pakistans tour of the West Indies may have been hard fought, with only one decisive victory, but they came away having proved themselves as a strong side, with the determination to win. Both Pakistan and the West Indies would go on to be dominate forces within the history of test cricket, with the tour of the West Indies in 1958 being seen as the turning point, where these two giants of the game started to come into their own.