Mohammad Yousuf

Pakistan's cricket team no longer has any Christians in it. Yousuf Youhana, the sole Christian member of the squad, recently converted to Islam in what reports have described as a quiet ceremony. There is now only one non-Muslim in the team; Danish Kaneiria, who is Hindu. Mohammad Yousuf, as Youhana is now known, said he was not pressured to convert. Nor was his decision to convert motivated by career ambitions. Despite these claims, his mother is refusing to speak to him for spurning the family name.

In 2004 Yousuf was briefly made Pakistan's Vice-Captain. During the test series in Australia, when he captained in Inzamam ul-Haq's absence, many cricket commentators said they were impressed by his leadership skills. He even scored a century at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as captain of Pakistan. Very soon after that series, however, Mohammad Yousuf was replaced by Younis Khan. There were no racial murmurs about the replacement of the Christian Yousuf for Muslim Younis, but there was certainly doubt in my mind.

Ultimately, Mohammad Yousuf is a cricketer. He is not an activist or a politician. But as the sole Christian in perhaps the most religion-focused sport team in the world, Yousuf Youhana was someone Pakistanis could be proud of. Here was living proof that even in chauvinist, chronically crony Pakistan a poor member of a minority could enter the most glamorous, celebrated echelon in the nation. The son of a street sweeper, Youhana learnt his wares on the very same streets. That majestic back lift, that penultimate maneuver, before his bat swung down to meet the ball and, ever so inevitably, punch it away towards the boundary with tremendous power. I met Yousuf briefly once, when the Pakistan cricket team toured Australia in 1999 and I was working as a journalist for a local Pakistani newspaper. He was a very humble young man back then, and he barely spoke any English. His humility was striking especially given Pakistani cricket's propensity for attracting prima donnas with egos to match.

Now, Mohammad Yousuf, represents another, more familiar Pakistan. The Pakistan where minorities are apparently invisible, even whilst they are more likely to be persecuted. This is the same Pakistan where so many have apparently 'discovered' their faith in Islam, where more than ever, Islamic political parties claim to represent Pakistan's social and moral norms. Cricket is more than just a religion in Pakistan. Sometimes, it is an echo of the very social fabric which makes and breaks the five or six dominant ethnic groups that live in the land of the pure. So much potential, so much arrogance, too little commitment, too much talent. But, alas, no more Christians.