He was a lanky, bespectacled youngster playing for his club - Pak Crescent - or with his buddies in the streets of Karachi. And he wasn't even left-handed.

But he was Zaheer Abbas. Even as a teenager Zaheer had a huge appetite for scoring runs just like Sir Garry, one of the most prolific batsmen of all time.

"I was always hungry for runs even as a little boy when playing in the streets," recounted Zaheer as we sat talking in his elegant study dotted with memorable photographs and cricketing souvenirs.

"I was always scoring runs even at the club level," recalls the former Pakistan Test captain, his eyes lighting up at the memory. "My photographs were featured in newspapers all the time. They used to say that I will be a big star one day. Out in the street, they even started calling me Garry Sobers though I was right-handed," he smiled.

Zaheer was too good to go unnoticed. He was drafted in the Pakistan team and made his Test debut against New Zealand in Karachi in October 1969. He only scored 12 and 27 in that drawn Test but went on to make history in his very next match with a memorable 274 against England at Edgbaston.

"I kept on batting relentlessly in that match," remembered Zaheer, also known in the cricketing world as Asian Bradman. "When I came back after finishing the innings everybody was congratulating me and I was wondering 'what is the fuss all about?' You see, I was so used to scoring runs by that time that it took some time before I realized that it was a special knock."

Zaheer took the field at Edgbaston as a greenhorn but came out a star.

Counties lined up to sign him but somehow he picked Gloucestershire.

"It turned out to be a great choice as I enjoyed each and every day I spent with them," he shared.

Zaheer fondly remembers the time he spent on the road with his friend Sadiq Mohammad. "We used to travel together and at times even stayed together. I had a great time with Gloucestershire. I also received a lot of respect from that county. They even named a village Abbas Town in the outskirts."

In England, Zaheer's greatest county rivals were Geoffrey Boycott and Vivian Richards. "We were the most prolific batsmen in county cricket at that time and it was inevitable that we became rivals."

But it was healthy rivalry.

"It was absolutely great having them as my competitors," said Zaheer.

Cricket buffs used to come from all over Britain to enjoy his elegant batting. "One day this guy approached me in Cardiff where we were to play against Glamorgan. He told me that 'I've come a long way to watch your batting so you better score a century today and I'll take you out for dinner'. I did score a hundred in that match," he reminisced.

Zaheer takes a lot of pride in the fact that he is the only Asian with over 100 first-class 100s and believes that he could have broken a few world records had he played more Tests.

"My Test career spanned over 16 years yet I played just 78 Tests. I wonder if I was born in the seventies I could have played twice as many Tests and have scored so many more runs. Probably I was born in the wrong era."

If there is one batsman Zaheer envies its Sachin Tendulkar.

"Tendulkar is so good and so lucky to be born at just the right time.

It's a great combination."

For Zaheer, Tendulkar is the greatest batsman of all time, greater than even the legendary Don Bradman.

"People keep calling him the greatest," said Zaheer as he pointed toward a large photograph in which he is having a good laugh with the Don.

"I never saw him (Bradman) bat but I know, somehow, that he couldn't have been better than Tendulkar. This boy has certainly gone a step ahead of the Don."

Zaheer believes that Pakistan's erratic batsmen should learn a thing or two from Tendulkar.

"Just look at that guy; I mean he has been playing for 21 years, has scored thousands of runs, dozens of centuries but is still as hungry for more as a debutant. It's such an inspiring sight to see him go out there and still bat like he batted as a teenager. Our batsmen should learn from him," he emphatically said.

Many critics fear that Pakistan's batting is a lost cause. They believe there are too many technical faults and temperament-related problems.

But Zaheer doesn't buy it.

"It's actually much simpler," he added. "It's about taking responsibility. They have to take responsibility. They have to stay on the wicket. That's the key and if they feel responsible they will learn how to do that. They will stop going for shortcuts."

Among the current lot of Pakistan's batsmen, Zaheer is a fan of Mohammad Yousuf. "He is easily the best batsman we've had in a long time," he said.

Zaheer had great expectations from Umar Akmal but is disappointed that the gifted youngster is making little use of his talent.

"Each time he goes out there it seems that Umar Akmal wants to break the cricket ball into pieces by hitting it hard.

"Somebody should tell him that it's not about how hard you hit it but for how long you can keep hitting it. It's really sad that he is not using his talent properly," muttered Zaheer.

Like his compatriots, Zaheer is troubled by the non-stop slump in Pakistan cricket.

"The state of our cricket really bothers me. Nothing is going right for us."

Zaheer wants the country's cricket chiefs to work on improving the existing cricketing structure at home and ties with the ICC and other cricket boards abroad.

"Our cricket board needs to get its act together. It has to work on its PR. You cannot have a board chairman act like a loose cannon," said Zaheer referring to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz

Butt's controversial comments over England players' alleged involvement in match fixing.

Zaheer is of the view that basic steps like hiring a foreign fielding coach can do wonders for Pakistan cricket.

"It's obvious that when it comes to international cricket, fielding is one of our biggest weak points. Why can't we hire a good fielding coach and make him work with the juniors and at the first-class level?

That's where the players need proper training. You cannot expect a cricketer to learn and become a good fielder after he has become a part of the national team. By then it's too late for him to learn much," he opined.

Zaheer fails to understand why Pakistan's batsmen struggle so much on greentops or at venues where the ball swings.

"I used to love green wickets. The moment I saw grass on a pitch I would tell myself 'I'm going to score a lot of runs' and I usually did," said Zaheer whose favorite ground is obviously Edgbaston but he also loved batting at The Oval and the National Stadium in Karachi.

The only place in the world where he had to really labor to score runs was Australia.

"In Australia, especially in Perth batting used to be really tough in those times," he said. "In my time batting was generally tough than it is today because at that time they didn't cover the wickets."

Zaheer never really had a problem against any of the spinners of his era but he gave a lot of respect to the pace trio of Dennis Lillee, Andy Roberts and Richard Hadlee. "They were great fast bowlers and it used to be a big challenge to bat against them," said Zaheer.

Zaheer is not a great fan of the hugely popular Twenty20 format but rates it as a good tool to push cricket forward.

"It's just masala cricket." He further said, "You cannot judge a player through his exploits in Twenty20 matches because he is not tested properly in such games. It's all about pleasing the crowd by hitting some big shots. As compared to Twenty20 cricket I believe that One-day Internationals are much more challenging and closer to Test which is real cricket."

Towards the end of our chat we were joined by Zaheer's better half, Sam. An interior designer who runs a successful design studio in Karachi, Sam is a busy lady but loves to talk about Zaheer's career.

"They used to love him," she said to me about Zaheer's fans. "They still do."