Don’t believe those who tell you that a India-Pakan match is ‘just another game of cricket’ | Cricket News

Over the next couple of months, if you hear Rohit Sharma or Babar Azam call the India-Pakan clash ‘just another game’ don’t believe them. For the real story about how this storied rivalry impacts the two nations and the game’s greats, reach out for Sultan, Wasim Akram’s engrossing memoir co-written Gideon Haigh.
The book paints a vivid picture of the most chaotic day of Pakan’s 1999 tour to India. Sachin Tendulkar’s run out after a collision with Shoaib Akhtar, the third umpire’s controversial verdict going against India, chants of ‘cheat, cheat’, stones aimed at Pakan fielders, early call for tea and the full-to-the-brim 1,00,000 capacity Eden Gardens resembling a tinder box ready to be ignited flames in the stands.
But the Eden fire had to be urgently doused. That very morning – February 19, 1999 – PM Atal Behari Vajpayee had started his famous bus journey to Lahore. During the break, Akram writes, Sunil Gavaskar and the match referee approached him with a suggestion. “Wasim, we think you should recall Sachin, people will love you in India,” Gavaskar would tell the Pakan captain. Akram’s reply captured the complexity of these encounters that are much more than a game. “Sunnybhai, they might love me in India but they’ll hate me in Pakan.”

At another time on the same tour, Akram would find himself under a high ball that Tendulkar had skied while mishitting a Saqlain Mushtaq doosra. This was during the first Test at Chennai when Tendulkar was merely a few strokes short of completing a match-winning masterpiece. “…Everyone in one country was willing me to catch what everyone in another country was willing me to drop,” was his recollection of the most important catch of his career.
Akram held his nerves and the ball. India ended up losing the epic first Test of the series at Chennai. Within days, Anil Kumble’s horic 10 wickets at Kotla would draw the spectacular series. Akram shares his emotions when standing next to his counterpart at the end of the 1-1 series. “Azharuddin and I posed soberly with the trophy, each perhaps a little relieved: as I knew … life would have been sour for the loser.”
Starting this Saturday, India and Pakan can potentially clash 5 times over the next two and a half months and these could possibly be the games where, as Akram said, life would suddenly turn sour for the losers. If the marketing men get their wish, cricket’s most intense rivals would end up playing the Asia Cup final and the World Cup semi-final or the big title clash on November 19 at Ahmedabad. There was the quarterfinal of the 1996 World Cup and the 2011 semifinal at Mohali but since then, India hasn’t met Pakan in home games where the stakes have been this high and whose outcome can be life-changing for players.
These will be games where the teams will be equally motivated to demolish the other while being fearful of being demolished themselves. Maybe, it’s this shared vulnerability and smothering anxiety that connects the cricketers carrying the burden of nation’s high-expectations on their shoulders. Fickle fans and fanatical support – isn’t always the best combination.

In the 90s, when India and Pakan cricketers would annually fly to Canada to play the ODI series, the informality of the club venue would bring the fans closer to the players. The consequences of this proximity weren’t too pleasant. Inzamam ul Haq would get called “aloo” those across the picket fences beyond the boundary rope. He would go after them with his bat. It was during those highly volatile games that Ajay Jadeja would famously joke with the Pakan players that bricks and bouquets were lined around the ground and the result of the game would decide who gets what. They all would agree and take it on the chin.
Over the years, things haven’t changed much. Active cricketers on both sides of the border bond over common culture, language, emotions and experiences. Pakan star Sarfraz Ahmed, in a popular podcast with Nadir Ali, shared an interesting conversation he had with Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan. “On the field there can be gussa but there’s also friendship. In both nations, they say the same thing. In Pakan, they say just win against India and in India they say just win against Pakan. In 2018, I met Shikhar Dhawan. He told me, “Bhai hamare yahan bhi yehi hota hai, you win or lose to others doesn’t matter much, just win against Pakan,” he says.
Sarfraz is aware of the consequences when this silly wish of the fans isn’t fulfilled. It takes just one defeat to turn a superstar into a villain. The Karachi boy from the other side of the track was called a national hero when he led Pakan to the 2017 Champions Trophy title after beating India in the final. The sight of Sarfraz hoing the Cup from the balcony of his home and the teeming crowd below chanting ‘mauka, mauka’ with him sent Pakan into a frenzy. He was the saviour, the captain responsible for breaking India’s ICC streak. In the podcast, the wicket-keeper talks of how the long-neglected road in front of his home got levelled overnight as the VVIPs had to welcome the pride of Pakan.

In a couple of years, Pakan, again led Sarfraz, would lose to India in the World Cup. The aftermath of the loss was brutal. Sarfraz, the People’s Captain, was reduced to a caricature. During that loss, the cameras would catch him yawning and the clip would inspire a million memes. His weight, his diet would make him a butt of jokes.

Things were no different in India. In the Champions Trophy final that India lost, pacer Jasprit Bumrah would force Fakhar Zaman to edge a mean ball that went away. India would erupt in joy till the third umpire would rule it as a no-ball since the Indian pacer had over-stepped. Jaipur traffic police couldn’t help but show their insensitive side. They would put the freeze frame of the Bumrah no-ball on a giant hoarding in the city with the message: ‘Don’t cross the line. You know it can be costly’.Most Read
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Bumrah was a rookie then, he was a hard-working diligent young pacer who hadn’t played the neighbours that often. He was turning aware of the ugly repercussions of taking one false step in an India-Pakan game. In a heart-breaking tweet he would write: “Well done Jaipur traffic police this shows how much respect you get after giving your best for the country.”

In the days to come, India and Pakan cricketers would be brutally judged again. India’s dismal record in ICC events and Pakan’s string of defeats against their arch rivals has made the fans edgy. Those defeated are unlikely to be shown sensitivity. In the Asia Cup, since most matches will be in Sri Lanka, they might get trolled on social media. Later for the World Cup, it could get worse.
This October a seething and heaving coliseum will wait for cricketers in blue and green. Be it the home team or the one visiting, none will be immune to the nervous tension in the air. When the teams line-up after the toss and national anthems get played; the swelling chests, strained vocal chords, war chants and flying flags will give the stadium an unmakable echo of a gladiator contest. Does sport need to be this important? Do we need to treat sportspersons as caged entertainers air-dropped into a testosterone-charged bubble? If only it could really be just another game of cricket and the white lie of captains Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam was actually true.
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