Waqar, incidentally, works as chief information officer in the IT department for Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited — the team who look favourite to clinch the title this year. “But I have not come here on behalf of my company, I have come here to witness the match held in honour of my father,” he says.

Waqar has presented the trophy to the winners on both occasions since its inception. “I was in Dharamsala when it first took place in 2006 and then in Karachi last year. I haven’t missed a day’s play till now, and I am eager to complete my hat-trick of presentations here,” he jokes.

In case you are wondering, as we were, about the extra ‘s’ in the father’s name, there’s a story behind that as well. “Actually, my father used only one ‘s’ in his name, but the English always used to refer him as Nissar. Later on, he adopted it and the name stuck,” he says.

This isn’t the first tournament to be played for a trophy named after Mohd Nissar either, he points out. “An inter-railway tournament used to be played in Pakistan for the Mohammad Nissar Trophy between 1963-68,” he said. “I am happy that the two boards have made an effort, especially Raj Singh Dungarpur, to reassert the historical importance of my father in India and Pakistan.

Waqar dismisses the notion that star players, tired of too much international cricket, are not giving enough importance to this fixture. In fact, he doesn’t really believe in the term ‘star’ cricketers at all. “They need to be gentleman cricketers, playing good, clean cricket.”

He goes on to relate a story about his father, the gentleman. “My father was quicker than Larwood and the Maharaja of Patiala, who didn’t get along too well with Lala Amarnath, asked him to bowl a bouncer and break Lala’s head. ‘I will allot you an entire village for that,’ he said. But my father refused the offer,” he recalls.

Waqar has donated to the DDCA several pictures from Mohd Nissar’s archives, pictures of the time he played at the Kotla, of his stay at the Wellingdon Pavilion and nights spent on the mattresses there. For all that he has given though, he’d like nothing more than to take away the Nissar Trophy, wrapped in safe custody at the DDCA premises.