ALAM'S BIG COMEBACK IS ALMOST IMMEDIATE

Following Fawad Alam’s recall to the Pakistan side after over ten years and 88 Tests, Roderick Easdale reflects on some other Test careers weirdly interrupted or abruptly curtailed

- Roderick Easdale

Like Fawad Alam, New Zealander Rodney Redmond made a century on Test debut, swashbuckling his way to 107 in the final Test against Pakistan in 1972. In one Majid Khan over, he hit five fours and went from 44 to 86 with ten fours and two singles.

On 97, he hit a ball for two which was fielded just inside the boundary. But the crowd, thinking the ball had crossed the boundary, invaded the pitch and mobbed the batsman. Eventually, the playing area was cleared, leaving a blood-splattered batsman.

Then there was a further delay to get a replacement bail for one taken by a fan. Redmond, inset below, then hit the next ball through cover for his 19th four. His century had come up in 130 minutes off 110 balls. In the second innings he made a bold 56.

Selected to tour England, contact lens problems led to him being dropped after the one-day internationals. He continued to play first-class cricket in New Zealand but, aged 31, only three years after his sole Test match, eyesight trouble hastened his retirement.

Redmond thus became the second one-Test wonder to make a century, after West Indian Andy Ganteaume, but is sanguine about it: “Other players as good if not better than I was didn’t get an opportunity. At least I did.”