14

Oct

All roads lead to Ahmedabad

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New Delhi, 12, October 2023

A remark of Musharraf when he met MS is in the same category as Raj Kumar's iconic dialogue in Pakeeza

Amitabh Srivastava

All roads lead to Ahmedabad

Even as the belligerent politicians and their hangers-on in India and Pakistan rant at each other, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)releases 14,000 extra tickets for the super match in the Cricket World Cup between both the countries due on October 14 at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium (formerly Sardar Patel Stadium) in Ahmedabad.

That is a phenomenon that normal humans are unable to figure out because those who love cricket are not normal humans.

If that was not so, would a remark of former Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf when he met our MS in Lahore in 2005 be placed in the same category as Raj Kumar’s iconic dialogue in ‘Pakeeza’.

At that time Dhoni used to sport a long mane of hair and after he had mesmerized the Pak President along with his fans across the border with a 46 ball 72, studded with 13 fours, the President almost sportingly requested Dhoni after the match “You have got lovely hair. If you take my advice don’t cut that hair.”

So many years later that loving remark of Musharaff is placed in the same category as Raj Kumar’s iconic comment in Pakeeza “Ye paanv bahut Khoobsoorat hain. Inhe zameen par na rakhein maile ho jayenge.”

That is the power of cricket. That is what is called sporting spirit which is buried deep under the debris of hatred and animosity and heightened verbosity of Nationalism today.

The people on both sides of the border have been loving cricket and their cricketers without fear or shame ever since India and Pakistan became two countries.

In 1952 the first match between the two countries was played when the Pakistani cricket team visited India. India won the first match in Delhi. So far so good. But when Pakistan won the second match in Lucknow there were chants of hostility among the fans. Luckily India won the third and final at Bombay. So all was well.

But the anger of fans on both sides of the border when their team lost a match with rowdy elements pelting stones and destroying property put so much psychological pressure on the players that they started playing for a draw subsequently.

This ruined the game but in the longest format of cricket fans were not surprised at the outcome both during the India tour of Pakistan in 1955 or the Pak tour of India in 1961. Fans were happy watching their players hitting gracious shots and the spinners spinning their web around the batsmen.

Fast bowlers were not available in India for some strange reason but we did have hard-hitting batsmen.

Till Bishen Singh Bedi was captain of the Indian team the management used to protect its spinners and India declared its innings closed before Prasanna, Chandrashekhar and Venkataraghvan came out to bat. But Kapil Dev changed all that as he encouraged all-rounders in the team. Sourav Ganguly and the captains following him maintained the tradition.

A legendary Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar however recently floated a strange theory. He has said that the reason Pakistan has produced fast bowlers and India has only batsmen is that Pakistanis eat meat.

He said that today India has a lot of fast bowlers because they have started eating meat. Not many on either side of the border take Shoaib Akhtar's statements even with a spoonful of salt. Now we know why!

But hostilities between the two countries have led sports enthusiasts to look for ways to bring the two teams together because they know these matches are money spinners.

Keeping in view the sentiments of sports lovers and nation lovers (sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don’t) organisers have tried to scoot for neutral venues to hold matches. Sharjah, UAE and Toronto have been popular choices.

With the introduction of the ODIs and T20 matches and international tournaments like the Cricket World Cup, ICC T20, and ICC Champion Trophy it is impossible for commercial interests to ignore the lure of playing Indian and Pakistan Cricket teams against each other which is the surest way to get a houseful, whatever the venue.

Even as India and Pakistan brace to face each other at Ahmedabad this Saturday after a gap of seven years (they last came face to face in 2016 in Kolkata in a T20 tournament), it would be interesting to check the record of matches played between the two countries so far.

The two countries have played 59 Tests of which India has won 9 while Pakistan has won 12 and 38 were drawn.

In ODIs they played 139 matches of which India won 56, Pakistan won 73 and there were 5 without result.

In T20s India has an upper hand. Of the 12 matches India has won 8, Pakistan 3 while one was a draw.

But records are meant to be broken and they will be.

What is more worrying is that when Pakistan and Srilanka were playing against each other in Hyderabad and slogans of ‘Jeetega bhai Jeetega Pakistan Jeetega’ were being chanted by the crowds a lot of people thought this was unwarranted.

Why?

Let’s hope the match in Ahmedabad is played in the spirit of the game and the crowds get their money’s worth.

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