Background
The son of a porter at the Karachi Gymkhana Club, Mathias was a stylish right-handed middle-order batsman.
The son of a porter at the Karachi Gymkhana Club, Mathias was a stylish right-handed middle-order batsman.
He made three half centuries in his Test career, all of them against West Indies. He was also a gifted slip fielder with exceptional reflexes, whose "great skill was to make hard chances look simple". According to Imtiaz Ahmed, the Test wicket-keeper at the time, he was Pakistan"s first good slip fielder, who "changed the atmosphere in the slip cordon", which previously had been the domain of players "who did not want to run".
He was a prolific run scorer in Pakistani domestic cricket.
After he returned from the tour of England in 1962, in the next four years he made 1357 runs in 13 matches at an average of 113.08, including his career-best score of 278 not out for Karachi Blues against Railways Greens in 1965-1966. Four years later he joined the newly formed National Bank cricket team and became their first ever captain, playing for them until 1976-1977 and later coaching the side.
In 146 first-class matches he made 7,520 runs, average 44.49, including 16 centuries. He held 130 catches, 22 in Tests.
He was a popular captain and a much respected manitoba
Mathias died of a brain haemorrhage in 1994, aged 59.
