If cricket were played as much in those days as now, Fazal would have taken a thousand wickets. — Former England bowler Sir Alec Bedser.

Of course, had Fazal Mahmood played today, he would have easily been one of cricket's more marketable icons. With green eyes, a towering personality, and the talent to make the ball do all but talk, Mahmood was the first bowling star for Pakistan, long before the likes of Sarfaraz Nawaz and Imran Khan appeared on the scene.

Mahmood has the rare honour of claiming a wicket off the fourth ball of his first over on 34 different occasions! "I would challenge the batsman before getting him out," says the erstwhile fast bowler with a proud smile. "People used to bet on it whenever I bowled. I would vary the angle of my inswingers by using the crease and then bowl an outswinger from the return crease." It sounds so simple when he narrates it.

The 78 year-old legend of Pakistan cricket has many famous scalps to his credit, among them greats like Sir Leonard Hutton, Neil Harvey, and Sir Garfield Sobers. In 34 Tests spanning a decade from 1952, he took a staggering 13 five-wicket hauls and four ten-wicket hauls, for a fantastic rate of a five-for every 2.6 Tests.

Mahmood retains fond memories of India, the country he had to leave behind after Partition. He reveals how in those tumultuous days he had gone to Pune for an Indian team camp preparatory to the 1947-48 tour of Australia under Lala Amarnath. It was only after a month there that he realised the danger to his life.

"I was informed about slaughter at the airport. I could not go to Delhi and Lahore. Another passenger, Om Prakash, gave me his ticket and that is how I could travel to Karachi.

"That incident changed my life," he says, his eyes moistening. "I decided to stay in Pakistan. I had a lot in India, emotionally and financially, but I had to reconcile myself and travel to Pakistan."

Mahmood has an interesting story to narrate in connection with his match-winning performance at the London Oval in 1954. More than 50 years ago, he had met Dilip Kumar on a local train in Mumbai. "We spoke about our future goals and decided to have a bet on who gets his first," he recalls. "After my 12 wicket haul in the Oval Test, Dilip sent me a telegram which read: 'You beat me'."

Naturally, Mahmood speaks of that Oval win with pride. England were on the verge of winning that Test chasing a paltry total in the last innings, but Mahmood picked 6-46 to help Pakistan to their maiden Test triumph in England.

Pakistan squared that series with a 24-run victory at the Oval. The following year, Mahmood was named one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year.

Though a frail old man now, Mahmood's strength in his youth was legendary. Once in the Caribbean he bowled 84.5 overs unchanged over a day and a half under a blazing Jamaican sun.

When he returned to Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he was studying advanced administration, a woman who had helped him with his thesis asked if she could touch him. Mahmood was startled. The woman then told him she had been at the stadium in Jamaica when he bowled that marathon spell. "I was wondering what metal you are made of," she remarked.

Mahmood credits his success to his father who used to place a coin in line with off stump and tell him to bowl on the coin if he wanted to pocket it.

He lists the late Indian opening batsman Vijay Merchant among his favourites and says current Indian quickie Irfan Pathan has the potential to be India's greatest fast bowler. In Mahmood's view, "India won in Multan because of the way he bowled."

Whenever the talk veers to India, Mahmood becomes nostalgic. The best period of his life, he says, was the time he spent in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. "I remember diving into the Dal Lake in Srinagar and trekking in Pahalgam," he says. "My father owned a houseboat called Egypt in the Dal.

"I want that back. Koi lauta de mere beetay huay din [Someone please give me back the days that have passed away]!"