Abdul Jalil – known everywhere from Sharjah to Sydney as “Chacha Cricket” – has decided that this summer will be his swansong. The 77-year-old says next week’s third ODI against Australia in Lahore will be “the last time I cheer for Pakistan at home”, though he still hopes to sit in the stands for the three-Test tour of England in August.
For many Pakistan supporters Jalil’s green kurta, felt cap and booming dhol have been as familiar as the opening pair. He first walked into Gaddafi Stadium as a teenager during England’s 1968-69 tour, caught the bug, and never really went home. By the late 1980s he was a fixture at Sharjah, quitting his clerical post in Abu Dhabi so he could follow the national side full-time. The 1999 World Cup in England, where Wasim Akram’s men reached the final, turned him into a global mascot.
That journey, he says, has now reached its natural end. “I will display all the memorabilia I have gathered over the years at the museum,” he explained this week, outlining plans for a small restaurant-cum-museum on the outskirts of Sialkot. “I had the target of cheering for Pakistan in 500 matches, which I have achieved.”
Those numbers are hard to verify – nobody has been counting every ticket stub – yet few doubt the scale of his dedication. Historian Osman Samiuddin points out that Jalil has probably watched more Pakistan internationals than “half a dozen national selectors put together”. Still, Jalil insists the next phase matters just as much. “I have done everything for the sheer love of the game and my country. My mission has been to be a great ambassador of the country and make fans across the aisles happy. I am now also looking to do some welfare work after my retirement.”
The decision to ease off was helped, he admits, by recent results. “I witnessed Pakistan’s three consecutive defeats to India [in the Asia Cup last year]. We have now lost nine in a row to India. I did not want them to lose another match after the Asia Cup.” He skipped the 2026 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka for the same reason, preferring to follow on television from Sialkot.
When the conversation drifts to happier memories, Jalil’s eyes still light up. “I was on the ground when Javed Miandad hit Chetan Sharma for a six on the last ball [in 1986 at Sharjah],” he laughs, banging an imaginary drum. “I vividly remember Miandad hitting him over deep midwicket. The other memorable match for me was when we beat India at The Oval [in the final of the Champions Trophy] in 2017.”
He is equally candid about the defeats that hurt. “They could not chase 120 against India at New York [at the 2024 T20 World Cup]. I had travelled a great distance to support the team.” And then there is the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali. “I took a painstaking journey for that game,” he sighs. “I travelled from Sri Lanka to Karachi to Sialkot and then crossed into India. We could have won that match but mistakes happen. Wins and losses are part of the game.”
Former Pakistan batter Bazid Khan believes Jalil’s presence in the stands has been “an underrated soft-power tool”, noting that television directors often cut to the bearded super-fan when tension rises. “He reminds viewers in Leeds or Lahore that cricket is meant to be enjoyed,” Khan adds.
Will the PCB offer an official send-off? No promises yet, but one board insider said they are “exploring a small presentation” during the innings break in Lahore. It would be a simple gesture: perhaps a framed shirt, maybe lifetime passes. Jalil, characteristically, shrugs. Recognition is lovely, he says, yet hardly essential. The real gift has always been “that sense of belonging when the crowd roars and the flag goes up”.
For now he is focused on the Australia series – packing the flag, checking the dhol’s worn leather, rehearsing chants that have echoed across four decades. After that, time to go home, hang up the kurta, and start cataloguing thousands of ticket stubs, photographs and autographs for the restaurant-museum that will keep the stories alive.
Not a bad second innings plan, really.
