Syed Masood Akhtar (born 18 August 1946) is a former international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who represented the American national side between 1979 and 1982. He was born in present-day India, and played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

in Pakistan before emigrating to the United States. Akhtar was born in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, but moved to Pakistan after

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

. He made his first-class debut in March 1962, aged 15, playing for the Pakistan Education Board in the

Ayub Trophy The Patron's Trophy was a cricket competition that was held in Pakistan between 1960–61 and 2018–19 mainly among teams representing the government and semi-government departments, corporations, commercial organisations, business houses, banks, ...

. His

Quaid-i-Azam Trophy The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition in Pakistan. With few exceptions, it has been staged annually since it was first played during the 1953–54 season. Domestic cricket in Pakistan has undergone many reorganis ...

came in December of the same year, when he played a single match for Karachi B.First-class matches played by Masood Akhtar
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 March 2016. Playing for

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

during the 1964–65 season, Akhtar made a maiden first-class century, scoring 112 runs against

Karachi University The University of Karachi ( sd, ; informally Karachi University, KU, or UoK) is a public research university located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Established in June 1951 by an act of Parliament and as a successor to the University of Sindh (whi ...

in the Ayub Trophy. In the tournament's final, against the Lahore Education Board, he scored another century, 116 runs, from eighth in the batting order. One of his opponents in that game was Kamran Rasheed, who was later his teammate on the U.S. national team. Later in the 1964–65 season, in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, Akhtar added a third century, scoring 113 for the

Karachi Blues Karachi cricket teams competed in the Pakistani first-class cricket tournaments the Patron's Trophy and Quaid-e-Azam Trophy from 1953-54 to 2018-19. Beginning with the 2019-20 season, the city of Karachi has been represented in the Quaid-e-Azam T ...

against

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

. In March 1968, Akhtar appeared twice against the Commonwealth XI team that was touring Pakistan at the time – once for

Central Zone The Central Indo-Aryan languages or Hindi languages are a group of related language varieties Spoken across North India and Central India. These language varieties form the central part of the Indo-Aryan language family, itself a part of the ...

and once for Pakistan Universities. Over the next few seasons, he also made appearances for the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

and Pakistan International Airlines B, with his last first-class appearance coming in March 1972. After emigrating to the U.S., Akhtar made his debut for the national team at the

1979 ICC Trophy The 1979 ICC Trophy was a limited overs cricket tournament held in England between 22 May and 21 June 1979. It was the inaugural ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, with matches between the 15 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and w ...

in England. He played only a single match at the tournament, however, scoring five runs and taking 1/33 against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Akhtar was also included in the American squad for the

1982 ICC Trophy The 1982 ICC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament held in England between 16 June and 10 July 1982. It was the second ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, with matches between the 16 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and w ...

, but again played only a single game, against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. He conceded two runs from his only over, with the match being

washed out Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr. (born October 3, 1982), known professionally as Washed Out, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Commonly associated with the chillwave genre in the 2010s, Pitchfork dubbed him "the godfather of chil ...

after 18 overs of play. Akhtar remained involved in American cricket after his retirement from playing, serving as a physiotherapist for the national team and on the board of the

United States of America Cricket Association The United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), headquartered at Miami Beach, was the national governing body for all cricket in the United States, until it was replaced by USA Cricket in 2019. The board was formed in 1965. USACA w ...

(USACA), including briefly as president. He was inducted into the U.S. Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010.(3 July 2010)
"Masood second Pakistani to enter US Cricket Hall of Fame"
– ''The Nation''. Retrieved 11 March 2016.

References

External links

a
CricketArchive

a
ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhtar, Masood 1946 births Living people American cricket administrators American cricketers Central Zone (Pakistan) cricketers Karachi cricketers Karachi B cricketers Karachi Blues cricketers Karachi Whites cricketers Pakistani cricketers Pakistani emigrants to the United States Pakistan International Airlines B cricketers Pakistan Universities cricketers Public Works Department cricketers Cricketers from Delhi American sportspeople of Pakistani descent Muhajir people