|
|
the-south-asian.com March 2003 |
||||
|
MARCH
2003 Murphy's
Law &
Films Serialisation
of 'Knock at every alien Events
Lehngas - a limited collection Books
|
|
||||
|
Page 1 of 4
Cricket in Pakistan by Omer Kureishi Omar Kureishi is Pakistan's
most seasoned and respected cricket commentator.
When the British introduced cricket in India, little could they have imagined that the game would become a secular religion in the subcontinent. Cricket is played, not only in cities and towns, but also in remote, far flung areas, and not just on cricket grounds but on any available vacant lot. It is not fun cricket that is being played. It is serious business. It has all the magic and excitement of a test match with resounding shrieks and and high fives. I have often been asked to rationalise this cricket madness. I am not able to do so beyond saying that like a love affair, the heart has its reasons. Cricket was once an elite sport and only the well to do and the privileged played what was by common consent, a gentleman's game. It had snob value and even those who came to watch were members of what can loosely be described as the gentry. The first proper cricket I went to was in 1934 at the Feroze Shah Kotla ground in New Delhi. The match was between the visiting MCC team led by Douglas Jardine and the Viceroy's 11. My oldest brother Nasir was playing for the Viceroy's 11. I was specially kitted up in a shirt and tie and worsted short pants. I wore stockings rather than socks. Considering that I was going to sit in the students enclosure, this seemed to me a fashion overkill . But I was told by my father that I had to respect the occasion. How far we have travelled since then! At the time of partition, cricket was mainly played in Lahore and most of the players who were to represent Pakistan in those early years came from Lahore, products of Government and Islamia colleges and clubs such as Crescent and Mamdot. Some of them had played in the Ranji trophy , the premier domestic tournament of pre partition India. In 1948 - 49, a West Indies team led by John Goddard toured Pakistan and this was the first international cricket encounter for Pakistan. Pakistan was led by Mian Mohammad Saeed and names like Fazal Mahmood, Khan Mohammad, Nazar Mohammad, Imtiaz Ahmed, and Maqsood Ahmed made their unofficial international debut. These were names that we would hear again and again in the years to come. There were other international matches. Pakistan toured Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1949-50, a Commonwealth team visited Pakistan in 1949-50, and Ceylon in 1950-51. But it was Nigel Howard’s MCC that toured Pakistan in 1951-52 that set up Pakistan on the international platform. Abdul Hafeez Kardar had returned to Pakistan after completing his studies at Oxford and was appointed captain. Kardar had played test cricket having toured England with the Indian team in 1946 and having played both for Oxford and Warwickshire. Pakistan scored a notable victory against Nigel Howard's MCC at the Karachi Gymkhana. Governor General Khwaja Nazimuddin was present at the ground to see Pakistan win. This match saw the emergence of a schoolboy cricketer, Hanif Mohammad who would electrify the cricket world and become a world record holder and arguably the best opening batsmen Pakistan has ever produced. A consequence of this win was that Pakistan gained international recognition and was given full test status by the ICC. Pakistan cricket had arrived. The romance with the game of cricket had begun. Pakistan toured India in 1952-53. It was a team that was lacking in experience, only Kardar and the ageing Amir Elahi had played test cricket. But what the team lacked in experience, it made up in enthusiasm. Pakistan lost the series but not without notching up a spectacular win in the Lucknow test match which also confirmed Fazal Mahmud as a world-class bowler. It was Pakistan’s tour of England in 1954 that was the defining moment of Pakistan cricket. Dubbed as "the babes of cricket" and mercilessly but affectionately patronised by the English media, Pakistani was to pull off one of the greatest upsets in modern cricket when it beat England at The Oval and drew the series. The English were stunned and the newspapers wrote that England had been "Fazalled". The test match was a personal triumph for Fazal Mahmood who, on a rain-affected wicket had match figures of 12 wickets for 99 runs. The team received the tumultuous reception when it arrived home. Thousands of cricket fans turned out to welcome them. Cricket had ceased to be the game for the elite. It had become a national passion and the fortunes of the cricket team were to be forever linked to the pride and aspirations of the country. The cricket public became demanding and critical and the team became the yardstick with which the progress of the country was measured! In 1954-55, India led by Vinod Mankad toured Pakistan. For me, personally, it was the beginning of my association with Pakistan cricket. I made my debut as a radio commentator and have been broadcasting and writing about cricket since. Radio commentary became the conduit through which the Pakistani cricket fan pursued his romance. Though the commentary was in English and the majority of the listeners could not understand a word of it, radio sets blared out from shops in every bazaar in the country, traffic would come to a standstill and even in Cabinet meetings chits were passed around giving the latest score. I have been given much credit for bringing cricket to every nook and corner of Pakistan but I was only the messenger. India's tour of Pakistan served up dull cricket and it was obvious that neither team was prepared to risk losing. All the test matches were drawn and only one of them is worth remembering - the Lahore test match played in the pastoral settings of the Bagh-e- Jinnah, where Maqsood Ahmed played a memorable innings, an innings that broke many hearts for he was out on 99 stumped Tamhane bowled Gupte. One listener in Bahawalpur was reported to have died of a heart attack when Maqsood was out.
|
|||||
| Copyright © 2000 - 2003 [the-south-asian.com]. Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. | |||||
| Home | |||||
