"I am happy this world record has Pakistan's name," said Yousuf, who beat West Indian great Viv Richards' 30-year-old mark with his 124 on the fourth day in the third Test against the West Indies on Thursday.

"I would like to dedicate the record to my mother, my wife and my brothers who have been a great support and are very happy about my success," said Yousuf, who rose from the slums of Lahore to make his Test debut in 1998.

Yousuf said his record was for his country.

"It is a great honour to create a world record. You play for your country, which is a great privilege, and to create history is a matter of great pride," said Yousuf, who also set a new Pakistan mark for a three-Test series score of 665.

The 32-year-old right-handed batsman drove paceman Corey Collymore to the boundary to cross Richards' record tally and went on to set a new mark of 1,788 Test runs in 11 Tests.

He also scored his ninth century of the year, beating his own record of eight that he set on Monday in the first innings. One of the previous holders for the century record was Richards, again in 1976.

Yousuf also equalled Australian great Don Bradman's record of scoring six centuries in successive Tests -- although it took him only five matches compared with Bradman's six.

But Yousuf played down the comparison with Richards and other Pakistani greats.

"I still feel that Richards and Brian Lara are the two greatest bastmen of this century. I had followed Richards in my childhood and think he should still be regarded as the greatest.

"Lara is the best batsman of my time, scoring 400 runs in a Test innings is no mean achievement and Lara has done it," said Yousuf, referring to the master West Indian's highest Test score made against England at St. John's in 2004.

Lara hailed Yousuf's achievement, saying he had been phenomenal over the year.

"His is an excellent achievement. Nine hundreds in a year was never done before and the credit must be given to him. He has become a role model, not only for youngsters of Pakistan but also around the world," said Lara.

The West Indian captain, who before this Test had pledged he would come down hard on Yousuf to stop him from snatching Richards' record, said Yousuf's run of form was tremendous.

"I didn't like that the last 600 runs of his record because those were made against us -- but his run of form was tremendous," said Lara.