In My Last Conversation With Dad, He Said He Wished I Would Play For Pakistan: Usman Qadir

Usman Qadir has said that it was his father’s sudden death which led him to change his mind and he decided to put forward his case for Pakistan again.

Usman hadn’t played first class or List A cricket in Pakistan for a long time before he featured in the recently concluded National T20 Cup.

The 26-year old was rather plying his trade in Australia, playing first class and List A cricket down under with the aspirations of featuring for the national cricket team of Australia one day.

Usman was once a part of the Australian Prime Minister’s XI as a local Australian player to play against the visiting South African team.

Usman’s father Abdul Qadir was, however, never convinced with Usman’s idea of featuring for Australia. Abdul, who was a legendary Pakistan cricketer himself and took more than 200 test wickets for Pakistan, wanted Usman to feature for his own country.

According to Usman, even the last time when he talked to his father before he had a heart attack which caused his demise, he was telling him that he wanted to see him in Pakistan colours. Usman says now that his father is no more, he has to fulfil his dream.

“It all changed when my father died. My main goal became to fulfil his desire. Even in my last conversation with him, he said he wished I would play for Pakistan.” Usman was quoted saying by ESPNcricinfo.

The reason why Usman got away from the Pakistan set-up was because there were a lot of talks about nepotism in Pakistan and he thought whenever he’s picked, people would say the selectors picked him because he was Abdul Qadir’s son.

Usman has now been selected in the Pakistan T20I squad for the series against Australia. Although he is not the first choice spinner in the side, he might get a chance to make his debut at some point of time in the series.