Javed Burki is a right-handed upper-middle-order batsman and occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler. He captained the Pakistan cricket team in five Test matches (four lost, one drawn) on the 1962 tour of England. When aged only 24 and with an experience of just eight previous tests.
He never led Pakistan again in a Test match or series, although he continued playing as a batsman. Burki belongs to a famous cricket family. His uncles M Jahangir Khan and M Baqa Jilani played Test cricket for undivided India, and another uncle, Agha Ahmed Raza Khan, was a first-class cricketer both in India and independent Pakistan.
Also, his first cousins Majid Khan and Imran Khan whose mothers were three sisters, played for and captained Pakistan in Test cricket, as did Burki Majid’s brother, and Jahangir Khan’s elder son, Asad Jahangir, was also a noted first-class cricketer, while Ahmed Raza’s sons Farooq Ahmed and Farrukh Ahmed too played at the first-class level.
His nephew Bazid Khan (Majid Khan’s son), Majid Khan, who is married to Javed Burki’s sister, also went on to play Test cricket and one-day internationals for Pakistan. Javed Burki was born in Meerut (Merah) in India’s United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh) on May 8, 1938. He made his first-class debut for Combined Universities against the visiting Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team from England in 1955–56, when he was only 17.
Javed Burki went on the Pakistan Eaglets tour of England in 1957 and then enrolled at Oxford University, where he played for the next three seasons from 1958 to 1960. He accompanied the national team on its tour of India in 1960–61 and made his Test debut there; playing in all five matches, Burki appeared in 25 Test matches in all, from 1960–61 to 1969–70, scoring 1341 runs (average 30.47) with a highest of 140 among his three centuries and four fifties.
He held 7 catches as a fielder and had 0-23 as a bowler. He was the captain in five Tests in 1962, as mentioned above. Burki played for several teams at the domestic first-class level. Therefore, he did so for some, as in his role as a noted civil servant with high government positions, he was posted all around the country.
These were Combined Universities (1955–56), Punjab (1955–56 to 1971–72), Lahore (19196–62 to 1970–71), Karachi (1963–64 to 1967–68), Rawalpindi (1967–68 to 1972–73), and North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) (1974–75). He also played first-class matches for Oxford University (1958–1961), the Pakistan Eaglets (1961–62), and Pakistan A (1964–65).
In his first-class career, from 1955–56 to 1974–75, Burki scored 9,421 runs in 177 matches at an average of 36.37. He hit 22 hundred and 31 half-centuries, of which his highest was a knock of 227. He held 101 catches and captured 35 wickets at an average of 44.57, with a best of 4-13.
Javed had a decent record for Oxford University in his three summers, totaling 2,272 runs in 44 first-class matches at 32.92 with five centuries and 10 fifties, 34 catches, and 16 wickets at 41.43 runs each. In his last season in 1960, he averaged 53.38 for his 961 runs in 13 matches, with three centuries and five fifties.
Javed Burki made the tour of India in 1960–61 with the Pakistan team, in addition to the tours of England in 1962 (as captain) and 1967, and Australia and New Zealand in 1964–65. He also went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with Pakistan-A in 1964–65. Also, he played a notable role in cricket administration later in his career.
He was Pakistan’s representative at the annual ICC meeting in England in 1978 as well as in 1994. Also, he was a member of the then-Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) ad hoc committee from 1978 to 1980 and was its chairman in 1994–95.
He served as chairman of the national selectors for four seasons, from 1988–89 to 1991–92, and was the manager of the Pakistan World Cup team against England in 1979. From 1993 to 1999, he served as an ICC match referee in six Test matches and 15 one-day internationals in New Zealand, England, and South Africa.
Javed Burki retired a little over two decades ago as a Grade 22 government official, his last stint being as Chairman of the Pakistan Automobile Corporation (PACO) from 1991 to 1996. Javed Burki on Wikipedia
