Mohammad Yousuf must lead the way

MELBOURNE cricket fans won't have forgotten the elegant batsman who will lead Pakistan onto the MCG for the Boxing Day Test - but they might not recognise him.

He has a new name, a new appearance, a new religion and a new way of celebrating his batting milestones.

What hasn't changed is that Mohammad Yousuf, 35, remains a formidable cricketer.

When Pakistan was last here, in 2004-05, he was Yousuf Youhana, a clean-shaven Christian - one of the very few ever to have played for Pakistan - who crossed himself repeatedly during a very fine innings of 111 at the 'G.

A year later he converted to his country's dominant religion, Islam, and now sports a bushy black beard. When he scores a century, he gestures in thankfulness to Allah in the direction of Mecca.

One aspect remains the same - he is a stand-in captain.

Five years ago, he assumed the leadership on the eve of the match when the incumbent Inzamam-ul-Huq pulled up injured after losing the first Test in Perth by 491 runs.

In Pakistan, Yousuf, Inzy and the coach, the late Bob Woolmer, were burnt in effigy in the streets, so humiliating had the performance been.

But Yousuf responded, hitting Shane Warne for three straight sixes in a partnership of 192 with Younis Khan.

Younis was to have been captain in New Zealand recently and for this tour but pulled out after only a few months in the job, claiming he had "lost command".

Younis, who played for South Australia last summer, was also unhappy about a Parliamentary match-fixing investigation during his reign, which cleared him.

The selectors claimed they couldn't find him to check his availability for Australia, but he turned up yesterday to play for the Habib Bank in the final of the domestic competition, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

It would surprise few if he lobbed here before the series was out, especially if Pakistan loses in Melbourne.

So in typical Pakistani fashion, Yousuf finds himself back in charge in tumultuous circumstances.

In fact, a year ago Pakistan banned him for accepting a contract with the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League, granting an amnesty to him and others in time for the tour of Sri Lanka in June, his first Test for 18 months.

And it is only nine months ago that Pakistani cricket was thrown into limbo by the terror attacks on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

Yousuf oversaw a 1-1 split in the series that finished in New Zealand last week, and has played 85 Tests for 7253 runs at the impressive average of 54.12 with 24 centuries.

One of six children raised in a one-bedroom shack behind a Lahore railway station, where his father worked to feed the family, Yousuf wagged school to spend countless hours watching his idol Javed Miandad, Pakistan's best batsman.

Now he sits third behind Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Huq on the run-scoring list and has a better average. Inzy has one more hundred.

When he finally got to meet Miandad, Yousuf was so nervous he could barely speak.

But when he was out of form during a tour of the West Indies a few years ago, Miandad, then Pakistan's coach, signed a bat for him so that he would always have a part of his hero at the crease.

He promptly scored a ton.

Yousuf is best known for his astonishing 2006 calendar year when he dumped West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards from the record books by scoring a record 1788 runs from just 10 Tests with nine centuries.

What's in a name? Well, that phenomenal performance came a year after he changed his.

Despite the century in Melbourne, he has struggled to make the same impact against Australia, averaging only 29.60 from eight matches.

He would be well aware that Pakistan has won only four of 29 matches here and has lost 3-0 in the past three series.

Nonetheless, he appears to have arrived in Australia in an apparently confident frame of mind, sitting out the tour match against Tasmania at Bellerive Oval.

He has noted the pressure the unheralded West Indies have put on the Australians, with their skipper, Chris Gayle, showing the value of committed, imaginative leadership.

Yousuf may be lucky enough to find himself opposed to a less experienced captain than himself if Ricky Ponting isn't fit to play and Michael Clarke leads Australia for the first time at Test level.

"The feeling one had some years ago that beating Australia in Australia is impossible is no longer there among our players," he says.



But there is little doubt that if Pakistan is to have any hope of winning a series in Australia for the first time, Yousuf will have to become the second visiting captain of the summer to lead the way.