Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
How Indo-Pak cricket fixtures fared over the past decades
Cricket matches between India and Pakistan have always run a high-pitch fever in the sub-continent with record viewership from both countries. It all began when the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai brokered peace with our neighbor that paved the way for Indo-Pak Test cricket resuming after a span of over two decades.
The first Test match that was played between the two countries after resuming cricketing ties ended in a tame draw at Faisalabad. India lost the next two matches by a huge margin and came off looking a no match to the cricketing strengths of their neighbors. There were also some unintended hilarious moments in the final stages of the Lahore Test match. Pakistan was set a target of slightly over 150 to chase in the post-tea session. Our spinners headed by Bishen Singh Bedi used to take a run up from the boundary line before every delivery was bowled. In addition, most of their deliveries were wide outside the off stump that frustrated the feelings of the Pak batsmen. In the end however, Pakistan won the match comfortably with enough wickets and mandatory overs to spare.
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Even as the Indian team came back with a poor show, there were two things that the three-test series worth remembering. Firstly, the Indian bowlers were frustrated throughout the series as they were unable to claim the prize wicket of Zaheer Abbas cheaply. In fact, it even ran into a joke with the Indian audiences screaming “Zaheer Ab Bas.”
The other memory is about the Indian team voicing umpiring woes. To some instances, it looked justified as any delivery hitting the leg was promptly given LBW by the Pakistani umpires. To the credit of Sunil Gavaskar, he managed to carry the bat through the innings with an unbeaten century despite this handicap. There were also spats about the patriotic Pakistani umpiring in the Indian press, at times making it a headline.
Then happened the Packer circus where top players from all the good teams played under the umbrella of World Series Cricket sponsored by Australian magnet Kerry Packer. At this juncture, the Pakistan team visited India for playing a six-Test series against India under Imran Khan’s captaincy.
Here there was a contrast provided in the fortunes of the two teams. Firstly, Zaheer Abbas, the star batsman to lookout for could not manage beyond a lone 50 knock in all the innings he played in the series. Secondly, the six Test series also resulted in an outcome that was the exact reverse of what happened in Pakistan. India won the Test series by a 2-0 margin.
Taking a look at the World Cup tournaments, it is worthy of mention that there was no Indo-Pak contest in the first three World Cups. Besides, even in the 1983 World Cup in which India defeated the mighty West Indies in the finals, there was no Indo-Pak fixture in the entire tournament. It can be safely said that for the first decade and half of One Day internationals, Indo-Pak fixtures never happened. Interestingly, this was the era when the Pakistan team was much stronger than their Indian counterparts and had India ever played against them during this tenure, Pakistan would have clearly emerged the stronger side. There was also an interesting observation from a Pakistani cricketer who said, the World Cup has come to Asia after India winning the Prudential Cup in 1983.
The Indo-Pak ODI fever began only after India won the Benson & Hedges cup in Australia that was followed by annual Asia Cup tournaments that used to be played in Sharjah. From then on till this date, India has never lost to Pakistan in any of the World Cup fixtures. There are also some memorable moments that come to mind. In the first Asia Cup fixture, it was an Indo-Pak final in which India was bowled out for 125. The Pakistan team was bowled out before reaching triple figures. In another Indo-Pak final fixture, Javed Miandad hit a six off the last delivery to clinch the match for Pakistan. Till date, whatever be the political equations between the neighbors, people from both countries get enthused about the prospects of an Indo-Pak fixture.
