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Gul Hameed Bhatti passes away at 63

Gul Hameed Bhatti, a leading sports journalist, editor and cricket statistician, passed away late on February 4 after a prolonged illness at the age of 63

Cricinfo staff
05-Feb-2010
Gul Hameed Bhatti, a leading sports journalist, editor and cricket statistician, passed away late on February 4 after a prolonged illness at the age of 63.
Bhatti was widely respected and acknowledged in Pakistan and outside as the leading cricket statistician in the country, though his writings and research extended into a number of other sports and fields. Alongside Abid Ali Kazi and the late Nauman Badar, Bhatti launched an association for cricket statisticians in Pakistan, which was responsible for a number of publications. He had built and was maintaining what is thought to be the most comprehensive database on domestic cricket and cricketers within Pakistan.
Bhatti had a long, accomplished and fruitful career in sports journalism. It began with The Cricketer (Pakistan) in the early 70s, when the magazine had just come out. Bhatti was in charge initially of sending in reports from the Lahore club scene, but soon took over to oversee a number of editorial areas and eventually was the man responsible for bringing out the magazine every month.
He became Sports Editor of the News in 1990 and was one of the key founding members of the newspaper, the English voice of the influential Jang media group. At one point, in the mid-90s, he even became editor of the paper, but returned soon after to his first love of sports, and was Group sports editor, until his illness.