Pakistani Cricket at Crossroads: An Outsider's Perspective

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Pakistani Cricket at Crossroads: An Outsider'sPerspectiveKausik BandyopadhyayPublished online: 19 Feb 2007.

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Pakistani Cricket at Crossroads: AnOutsider’s PerspectiveKausik Bandyopadhyay

Cricket has always remained an emblem of national pride in Pakistan since its birth in1947. Pakistani cricket is an integral part of the sub-continental cricket culture and

economy. On the other hand, like India, Pakistani cricket too always remained vulnerableto intricate power play and factional politics within the ranks of both its cricket

administration as also its players. As this essay tries to show, the game also remains anunconventional cultural tool in the normalization of her diplomatic relations with India.

With cricket’s intensive professionalization, commercialization and mediatization sincethe 1990s Pakistani cricket began to face the challenge of adaptation towards a changingorder of the global game. More importantly, cricket in twenty first-century Pakistan

provides a cultural space where all the dissents can converge for a Pakistani feat. Whilecricket has already served as a metaphor for the assertion of Pakistani identity, expression

of cultural nationalism or feeling of emotional commonality, as the present essay tries toargue, it must emerge as a marker of the nation’s international status as well as an

instrument for flexing its economic muscle in the new century.

Introduction

Within the country, sports have provided one of the few sources of collective joy in asociety that has had its fair share of woes. [1]

In Pakistan it [cricket] is the strongest unifying force amongst its people, young andold, rich or poor, man or woman, Shia or Sunni, Pathan or Sindhi. It brings a unityin peacetime only achieved in times of war. [2]

If ever I was struggling out in the middle, pushing for victory or staving off defeat,the sight of the Pakistan flag fluttering defiantly would warm my heart and keep megoing. Whenever we played in Sharjah, I used to run laps around the ground beforethe start of a match. . . . The atmosphere was full of passion for Pakistan, and it

ISSN 1743-0437 (print)/ISSN 1743-0445 (online)/07/010101-19 q 2007 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/17430430600989191

Kausik Bandyopadhyay, North Bengal University, India. Correspondence to: [email protected]

Sport in Society

Vol. 10, No. 1, January 2007, pp. 101–119

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would uplift us. It is this passion, this purely Pakistani passion, which has fuelled mycricket and has motivated me to do whatever I have been able to do. [3]

As the perception grew that the Pakistanis were incomparable when it came tohospitality, intolerant as cricket lovers and insufferable as victors, Indians kept totested friendships – or themselves. [4]

We are going there [India] to better the relations between the two countries, and Ihope the Indian Government will not allow a handful of people to deprive cricketlovers of some action and tension packed cricket. [5]

Comments can be multiplied. But what the above quotations clearly suggest is the

centrality of cricket in the social and political life of Pakistan. Cricket is the de factonational game in Pakistan, if not its only secular religion in the last few decades.

Pakistanis, it is often suggested, like talking, reading and writing about cricket. Thepassion with which Pakistani cricketers play the game, the emotion with which the

Pakistani masses watch their national team play, the admiration with which theyworship their cricketing icons and the cricketing culture that has grown around this

nationalist obsession are fascinating enough to invite comparison with those of Indiaor Sri Lanka. In fact, Pakistani cricket is an integral part of the subcontinental cricket

culture and economy now being led by India at the international level. As ShaharyarKhan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board has rightly argued:

In India and Pakistan – as indeed all over South Asia – cricket has assumed an all-consuming hold on people from all walks of life. From Quetta camel-cart driver tothe Chennai professor, from the Lahore shopkeeper to the Bombay housewife, fromthe Dhaka student to the Colombo hotel waiter, cricket has become anoverwhelming passion, its huge energy like incandescent lava flowing down a livevolcano, ready to be channelled towards peace and harmony. [6]

Cricket’s pre-eminence in Pakistani life has also led to its construction andinterpretation in terms of political transition, social tension, economic transform-

ation, diplomatic relations and cultural development.Cricket has always remained an emblemof national pride in Pakistan since its birth in

1947. On the other hand, like India, Pakistani cricket too always remained vulnerable to

intricate power play and factional politics within the ranks of both its cricketadministration and also its players. Living with these contrasting realities of domestic

cricket culture, as this essay will try to show, the story of Pakistani cricket offers aninteresting repertoire of stunning performances including both exemplary success and

appalling defeat, mass worshipping of its cricketing icons, public wrath against thenational cricketers and politicization of cricket for diplomatic purposes. And when it

comes to Pakistan’s cricketing relations with India, the apparent popular perception ofan ever-rising enmity stands in striking contrast to the friendly ties between the two

cricket boards at international level while the game still remains the one viableconfidence-building arena in the long-term process of normalization of diplomaticrelations between the two neighbouring states. With cricket’s intensive professionaliza-

tion, commercialization and mediatization since the 1990s, Pakistani cricket began to

102 K. Bandyopadhyay

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face the challenge of adaptation to a changing order of the global game. Moreimportantly, in twenty-first-century Pakistan, where democracy begs a place in the sun

and where dissent is more powerful than cohesion, cricket provides a cultural spacewhere all the dissents can converge for a Pakistani feat. While cricket has already served

as a metaphor for the assertion of Pakistani identity, expression of cultural nationalismor feeling of emotional commonality, as the present essay tries to argue, it must emerge

as a marker of the nation’s international status as well as an instrument for flexing itseconomic muscle in the new century.

Pakistan’s Contributions to World Cricket: Some Long-term Aspects

In the development of modern-day cricket, Pakistan’s contributions are worthy of noteon many counts. As Hanif Mohammad, a legendary Pakistan cricketer commented:

All types of tensions have been evident in Pakistani cricket. There have beenfactional struggles, biases and prejudices. But these are part of the human dramaof our society. What is important, and rises above this all, is our record ofachievements. It is an exceptional record over the past fifty years, specially giventhe circumstances and the difficulties. I was there at the start of our cricketingjourney, and as I look back I see it as a record to be proud of it. It is important toreflect on the explanations. All the conflicts and tensions are a secondary issue;they add spice to the story, but first we have to see what the main ingredientswere. [7]

Pakistan has contributed to substantial changes in the international management ofthe game since the 1970s. In the process of inventive and entrepreneurial changes

that led to cricket’s true professionalization in the 1980s, Pakistan played a centralrole. First, it led the campaign for neutral umpires and unilaterally started the

practice, now a regular feature of twenty-first-century cricket. As Arif Abbasi, one ofthe longest serving officials in the history of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB),

maintains:

We were the first team to introduce the concept of a professional manager. Neutralumpires? We campaigned for that for ten years and then started doing it anywayyears before the world followed. The ball-boys, you know, those kids at theboundary, we introduced that. Sunil Gavaskar thanked me for that idea. Whenthey were using two white balls, one from each end, in one-day cricket? Well, thatwas my idea. [8]

Second, it joined hands with India to democratize the process of decision-making in

the international management of the game. It was this joint effort that helped bring theorganization of the World Cup to South Asia for the first time in 1987 – the true

beginning of cricket’s globalization across the world.From a purely cricketing point of view, Pakistan’s greatest innovation in the art of

cricket has been the lethal ‘reverse swing’, which revolutionized modern fast bowling.If Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan introduced and perfected the technique of reverse

swing in the 1980s, it was Wasim Akram, in tandem with Waqar Younis, who

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transformed reverse swing, ‘the headline trend of the 90s’. [9] Waqar’s entry onto theworld cricket scene in 1989, coupled with the gradual decline of the Caribbean pace

machine, speeded up the advent of the new pace age. It helped that both Wasim andWaqar were blessed with pace and, in varying ways, the perfect techniques. The

results were sensational:

Time and again between 1990 and 1995, opponents would find themselves happilyplaced at 160-odd for one, or 200 for 2, only to collapse like a house of cards as theball got older. . . . Tailenders, having acquired protection and developed resistanceto fast bowlers with the advent of helmets, now faced a new challenge altogether, andone to which they quickly succumbed. [10]

New Zealand in 1990, West Indies in 1991, England in 1992, the Kiwis again and SriLanka in 1993, and a spate of one-day tournaments, predominantly in Sharjah,

witnessed fierce pace bowling and batting collapses of a kind never seen in cricketbefore. Scyld Berry has argued persuasively that ‘reverse swing, as much as the

barnstorming Australian team, helped achieve a dramatic reduction in the number ofdrawn Tests in the nineties, by diminishing the contributions of lower orders of batting

sides, both in terms of runs and of time’. [11] Although ‘reverse swing’ as perfected bythe Pakistani quickies always thrived on controversy and was fraught with charges ofball-tampering, a large number of fast bowlers around the world followed into the act

of reverse swing – Darren Gough (England), Manoj Prabhakar (India), ChamindaVaas (Sri Lanka), Danny Morrison (New Zealand) and Brett Lee (Australia) to name a

few. The ability to swing the old ball changed the attitude of Pakistani bowlers: most ofthose who represented Pakistan, whether fast, medium or slow, had an attacking

mentality ingrained into them. It was this ideology of attack, rooted in thedevelopment of reverse swing, which arguably brought about Pakistan’s most

successful period in international cricket – a period when Pakistan also won the WorldCup. [12] Pakistan, however, in recent times, has started using the Kookaburra ball,which is not quite so amenable to reverse swing. The recent Test series against England

and India at home saw Pakistan through with convincing series wins even with thischange. Thus although the shift to Kookaburra ball decreases the chances of reverse

swing, it probably suits more reasonably the priorities of a new-look Pakistan bowlingattack in the post-Wasim/Waqar age.

No account of Pakistan’s cricketing glory would be complete without mentioningthe batting feat that Javed Miandad achieved against India in a final of a one-day

tournament at Sharjah in 1986, when he hit ‘the shot of the century’. [13] Pakistanneeded a boundary to win off the last ball of the match. But Miandad managed to

score a six with a magnificent pull off Chetan Sharma, the Indian pacer to give his sidea most improbable victory. As Omar Noman has brilliantly commented:

No other single hit compares with the significance of his famous six. It was morethan a shot. It was symbol of triumph under paralyzing tension. . . . This electrifyingmoment . . . was responsible for raising national enthusiasm to unprecedented


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levels. The scale of celebrations suggested that Pakistan had won the world, not acricket tournament. [14]

Many considered Pakistan to be one of world’s best cricketing sides in the 1980s and

1990s. Omar Noman explains the country’s success in maintaining such a track recordfor so long a time in terms of five key factors: the incentive structure, the youth policy,

an effective exploitation of Lahore and Karachi’s comparative advantage, patronageand support by government organizations and family structures which compensated

for lack of institutions. [15] According to Noman, the first factor is probably mostcrucial in harnessing so much talent in Pakistani cricket. The financial rewards,glamour and social mobility associated with the international game provide a strong

incentive structure for attracting talent. That is why, he believes, cricket has become aviable career option for Pakistani youth. All other factors have strengthened this

inspirational attitude towards the game. The youth policy in Pakistan cricket isconsidered unique by many. Pakistan has consistently adhered to a youth policy,

encouraging talent to be tested early at the international level. That is why mostrecords for the youngest players have been held by Pakistan. [16] The third factor in

explaining Pakistan’s success, as Noman points out, has not received due recognition.Pakistan’s geographic spread and ethnic mix has been very conducive to producing abalanced side. This is because the regions playing cricket have exploited their

comparative advantage, particularly in terms of physical stature. This particularregional mix has led to a combination of northern (Lahore) fast bowlers and southern

(Karachi) batsmen. In fact, the provincial tensions are minor compared to theadvantages of the competitive rivalry which has frequently brought out the best in

players. [17] The patronage and support extended by semi-government and officialinstitutions has also played a crucial role in Pakistan’s cricketing success. In the 1950s

and 1960s PIA, the national airline, provided important support for the developmentof cricket by financing youth teams abroad, known as PIA Eaglets, which produced

several Test cricketers. Subsequently, the financial institutions nationalized in the1970s were made to support teams financially, thus providing many players somemodicum of security. [18] Finally, family structure has provided an important

institutional mechanism for training cricketers when formal structures were absent.Family nurseries such as the Mohammads of Karachi or the Khans from north-west

Lahore carried Pakistan cricket, particularly through the initial stages when the formalinstitutions lacked resources. However, with the growing importance of sponsorship

and urban institutions in cricket, the family’s role as a kindergarten for nationalcricketers has now dwindled into relative insignificance. [19]

However, as cricket is fast becoming a televised spectacle in Pakistan, attendance atthe stadiums, especially for Test matches, has become very poor. The recent Testseries against England and India bear testimony to this trend. Watching cricket on

television may have universalized cricket’s impact as the greatest mass spectator sportin Pakistan; but at the same time it has definitely affected the on-field attendance at

Test matches.


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Boons and Banes of Pakistani Cricket: Recent Trends

Cricketing talent in Pakistan in the recent past has not always been harnessed througha proper talent-searching infrastructure. There have been many who came as

uncoached talent budding into top performers under the impact or aegis of legendaryfigures such as Imran Khan. Aaqib Javed is a perfect example of such talent. However,

from 1999 the board started launching its academies in important cricket centres –namely, Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Multan. The academy systemhas really boded well for Pakistan cricket. As Aaqib Javed has rightly argued, ‘The

training from academies has helped a lot. The boys are disciplined and professionalfrom an early age. They know about physical training, diet, code of conduct.

If Pakistan is now succeeding more than ever before at the junior level then this creditgoes entirely to the academy system.’ [20] More importantly, Pakistan’s phenomenal

success in producing some of the world’s leading and most feared fast bowlers in thelast few decades needs to be analysed in proper perspective. Aaqib has offered four

main reasons to explain this phenomenon: genetic structure with good height andhealth; strong protein diet with beef; youngsters playing cricket with a tape/tennis

ball; and the presence of so many fast-bowling heroes or idols to follow such as ImranKhan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar. [21] All these bowlers, alongwith Aaqib, are also credited as the best exponents of the art of ‘reverse swing’, a

nuanced swing bowling invented by another Pakistani fast bowler, Sarfraz Nawaz,in the 1970s.

It has been argued that ‘things move circularly in Pakistani cricket’. [22] WhenPakistan had made an early exit from the group league stage in the 2003 World Cup,

Waqar Younis, the captain was sacked. The coach, Richard Pybus, was fired whileWasim Bari, the chief selector, himself resigned. The star batsman, Inzamam-ul-Haq,

was axed from the team along with seven others. The squad got a completely new lookunder a new chief selector, Aamir Sohail, a new captain, Rashid Latif, and a new coach,Javed Miandad. However, it took less than a year to get things changed drastically

again. Both Latif and Sohail were shown the door in favour of Inzamam and Bari whileMiandad, lucky for the time, suffered the same fate after Pakistan’s first home defeat

against India in March–April 2004. Relationships within the team have not been toogood either. The famous Imran-Miandad tussle of the 1980s–1990s left its mark on

the team’s fortunes despite Pakistan’s success in clinching theWorld Cup in 1992. AfterImran’s retirement Pakistan, even with huge talent, could not find a long-term

competent leader to handle the soft issues of ego or personality conflicts. Miandad,Salim Malik, Aamir Sohail, Akram, Waqar, Latif, Moin – all sailed in the same boat.

The latest addition to this tradition of internal clash in the teammanagement has beenthe continuous arguments between the captain Inzamam and the ace bowler Shoaib.Yet the team under its present foreign coach did quite impressively in 2005 thanks to

the hard, sustained and disciplined efforts of the talented youngsters. A new lookPakistan side won against both England and India in the test series at home while it put

up a dismal show against India in the one day series. However, the team again got into


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controversy while playing the test series in England as its captain Inzamam wascharged with a ball tampering allegation. Finally, as I complete this essay, the Pakistan

team received a rude shock on the eve of the ICC Champions Trophy when first, itscaretaker captain Younis Khan stepped into the cherished post with unsoothing

remarks against the authorities, and then its ace fast bowlers Shoaib and Asif werecalled back home for doping charges labelled against them. Naturally enough, Pakistan

without Inzamam, Shoaib and Asif suffered exit at the group stage.Many within Pakistan blame the ad hoc character of Pakistan’s cricket

administration for this instability and insecurity in Pakistani cricket. As Arif Abbasiamply points out:

Ad-hocism, ad-hocism is the bane of this country, and it is the bane of this cricketboard. Our last three boards, including this one [the board at the time of India’s tourof Pakistan, March 2004], have all been ad hoc boards. Look, the board is a registeredcompany with the Stocks and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. Its shareholdersare the 33 members of the general council. The council has not met for years. Whatis in place now is, basically, an illegal body. Already the state associations are takingthem to court. [23]

Added to this is the bane of the politicization of cricket administration in Pakistan inrecent times. In fact, the nation’s political and institutional turbulence is amply

reflected in the management of cricket. The result is appalling: ‘Boards and particularofficials are changed overnight. Corruption is protected through political patronage

and lack of judicial recourse. . . . Captains are changed arbitrarily, players banned andreinstated, factional conflicts thrive.’ [24] One important move in the direction of

professional management, suggested Omar Noman, ‘has to be the removal of thepower of the President of the country to make appointments. The management of

cricket has to be insulated from direct political manipulation. . . . This would help inthe move towards creating a more democratic and accountable Cricket Board.’ [25]

Sanjay Manjrekar, cricketer turned commentator, has another interesting

explanation to offer in this regard. He argues that ‘unrestrained passion’ hasremained ‘the biggest scourge of Pakistani cricket, especially when it pervades the

cricket administration’. [26] As he goes on to argue,

Passion is a double-edged sword. A certain amount of it is required to run cricket,but when passion is misguided, it affects hard reasoning and becomes counter-productive, as has been evident in Pakistani cricket for years. . . . One can onlysalute the extraordinary talent of Pakistani cricketers, which has helped themachieve them so much in world cricket despite an extremely unstableadministration. [27]

In Pakistani cricket in the last decade or so, controversies and players have tended tobe bigger than the game. If the match-fixing scandal and judicial enquiries have rocked

Pakistan since 1995, differences between the players have also ensured that the teamhas never been able to play consistently well. The victory in 1992, it has been argued,‘was due largely to the aristocratic and dictatorial leadership of Imran Khan, who,

despite his faults, led by example and had the ability to put the team before the ego’.


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[28] But Imran had always had an acrimonious relationship with Javed Miandad, asdid Wasim Akram later on. In fact, Pakistani cricket throughout the 1990s and even

into the new century was riddled with match-fixing charges and rebellious players.Even Wasim, a great bowler, could never shed match-fixing allegations. Shaharyar

Khan, the person least convinced of such allegations against his cricketers, admitted‘the possibility of our players having indulged previously in deals with the betting

mafia, especially in meaningless tournaments in Toronto, Sharjah and Singapore’. [29]There have been on the other hand several instances of dressing-room intrigues

damaging Pakistan cricket. The infamous rift betweenWasim and Miandad during the1996 World Cup is clear testimony to such intrigues. On numerous occasions onaccount of players’ revolts, the PCB had to force either the coach or the captain to step

down before a vital tournament, thus harming the best interests of the team. After thedefeat of Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup final against Australia, a match-fixing

enquiry was instituted in Pakistan. The National Accountability Bureau, afterinvestigating the players’ acts and performances, suspended a number of cricketers on

grounds of suspicion. [30] Despite all this trouble, the Pakistan cricket team remainsan unpredictable lot simply due to its unusually gifted talent and a passionate

attachment to the game.All of Pakistan follows the national cricket team with as much interest as in other

parts of the subcontinent. Yet, as in India, it is only international cricket that is

immensely popular in Pakistan and there is a pathetic neglect of domestic cricket hereas well. As Sikander Bakht has rightly noted, ‘Contrary to popular opinion, it isn’t the

first-class structure that fails the players. It is the lack of structure at the preliminarylevels – district, city and club – that hurts more.’ [31] Shaharyar Khan makes the

point more illuminating:

Our players learn by instinct and by emulating their heroes. They are seldomcoached or given even the basic training of cricket, such as backing up, runningbetween the wickets, correcting no-ball propensities or pressurizing the fielder withaggressive running. The result is that they arrive at the Test scene bursting with talentbut without the basics having been drilled into them at a formative stage. Most ofthem learn on the job. [32]

Poor marketing, negligible spectator attendance, want of public interest and lack ofinvestment are the woes that still plague the domestic game. Yet, against all hardshipsand heavy odds, committed players keep on struggling with the hope of making it one

day to the national squad. As Mathur succinctly sums the essence of their battle: ‘Theyknow this is one ladder they must climb to reach the top, this is a grind they must

endure because there is no alternate route to the summit.’ [33] Moreover, domesticcricket is financially unrewarding as players receive a meagre daily allowance for

matches and no tangible security cover is available to them. They also face recurrentscarcity of jobs and the limited opportunities that exist offer employment only on a

contractual basis for shorter periods.Another interesting complexity in the history of Pakistani cricket has been the

strong value attached to the foreign-educated players and administrators, sarcastically


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called the “Oxbridge Complex” by Javed Miandad. Since Pakistan’s birth as anindependent nation, most of its captains and CEOs represented the Oxbridge

syndrome – Kardar, Javed Burki, Majid Khan, Imran Khan, Rameez Raza, WasimAkram, Waqar Younis or Shaharyar Khan had all had their higher education abroad.

This runs in striking contrast to the Indian situation, especially with regard to India’scricket administration, as the top Indian administrators have tended to be home-

grown politicians or industrialists. As Rahul Bhattacharya points out:

This reflected, more than anything, the marginalisation of the politician in Pakistan.. . . where the Indians hid behind ‘democracy’ (i.e. vote-bank politics) and a unique‘honorary’ altruism (i.e. part-time amateurism) to play out their power games, inPakistan cricket was apparently still a matter of Anglicised cultivation, with linesdrawn accordingly. [34]

The antithesis to the Oxbridge image in Pakistani cricket was Javed Miandad. It was

with him that the first revolt against the so-called privileged domain of foreign-educated cricketers was sparked. Miandad has blasted in his autobiography against this

trend:

There has been a tendency in Pakistan cricket in which players with an Oxford orCambridge background have been overvalued, and players far removed from such abackground have been undervalued. It is an injustice that was part of our cricketfrom the earliest days, and was kept alive well into my playing years. . . . In recenttimes the Oxbridge Complex in Pakistan continues to exert its influence, albeit in adifferent form. The modern version exists in the value placed on the ability to speakEnglish. It is no secret that English-speaking skills are an important consideration inappointing the Pakistani captain. This is a sad and deeply misplaced attitude. . . .Certainly, an ability to speak English should never be considered as a reason to denysomeone the Pakistan captaincy. [35]

Miandad’s point seems to have been more justified when he offers the better

alternative to choose a captain: ‘In choosing a captain, priority must be given to cricketacumen and leadership skills; English-speaking ability should be secondary.’ [36] The

turn to the new millennium saw a number of home-grown performers leading thePakistan side – Moin Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Rashid Latif. Mostly from modest

middle-class backgrounds, these players have shined on and off the pitch simply oncricketing merit. Despite this typical hierarchy in the rank and file of Pakistan cricket,

it is cricket that acts as a great leveller in Pakistani society. The strong presence ofDanish Kaneria in the present Pakistan team on the basis of his performance amplyillustrates this positive trend.

India’s Pakistan Tour of 2004: Ramifications Off the Field

India’s cricket tour of Pakistan 2004 was unique on more counts than one. The tour

came against the backdrop of a sincere quest on the part of India and Pakistan to forgetthe past and make a serious attempt to resolve their differences. Shaharyar Khan called

it ‘the most important, highly publicized and politically important cricket tour in


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Pakistan’s cricketing history’. [37] For Pakistan, the hope and hoopla on the tour hadmultifarious dimensions. As Muralidhar Reddy argued:

The tour is a bonanza for Pakistan for more than one way. It provides a greatopportunity to the government to demonstrate to the rest of the world that Pakistanis certainly not about people merrily firing from Kalashnikovs and scientistsproliferating from nuclear secrets. It is no small gain considering the bad publicityPakistan has got since the twin-towers in New York came down. [38]

Rameez Raza, the CEO, too, argued on the eve of the tour: ‘On our side we realise that

we have a lot to gain from India coming here. While it is a huge financial boost, thereare other intangible gains by way of credibility for future games. The nation knows that

the world is watching and we will have to show them that we can host any team at anyvenue without a hitch.’ [39] And the tour not only proved a memorable boost to

bilateral relations; but ‘went a long way towards projecting Pakistan’s image as apeaceful, moderate and progressive society’. [40] As the Indian High Commissioner,

Mr Shivshankar Menon, remarked, ‘20,000 Indian fans had gone back to India actingas Pakistan’s ambassadors’. [41]Of course, the economic dimension of the tour was much more significant for the

Pakistan Cricket Board. The PCB had been in dire straights in the years preceding thetour as several scheduled tours including those of Australia, West Indies and England

got cancelled on security grounds. India’s tour could have mended all the previouslosses to a substantial extent for the PCB. It struck deals worth Rs120 crore while it

expected Rs4.5 crore from ticket sales. Such was the response from the Indiancompanies that it had to reserve some deals for Pakistani companies. Even the TV slots

became four times costlier than they had been during the World Cup in 2003. [42]Sponsorship and commercial transactions reached a new high on the eve of the tour.

Ten Sports paid a whopping Rs59.85 crore for telecast rights and was expected to makeclose to Rs130 crore. [43] Hero Honda spent Rs7 crore on sponsorship rights and latermore on advertisements. [44] Samsung paid Rs20 crore for the title rights while

Samsung and Pepsi combined were expected to spend around Rs80 crore on the series.[45]] Pepsi bought 150 ten-second television slots costing Rs5 lakh each, while

Samsung earmarked Rs60 crore for advertisements. [46]It is beyond doubt that the series presented a great opportunity for people on both

sides of the border to interact one-on-one. Everybody understood on the eve of the tourthat there were bridges to be built, hearts to be won. In fact, it was a great chance for

both nations to capitalize on the prevailing feel-good atmosphere. For example, Indiancricketers launched a polio-eradication campaign in Pakistan and joined handswith theMinistry ofHealth to send amessage across the country to that effect. In another unique

humanitarian gesture the Indian cricket team appealed to doctors back home to treat ayoung Pakistani girl afflicted with cancer. [47] More importantly, Indian and Pakistani

players wore symbolic red ribbons, reiterating international cricket’s commitment toincrease AIDS awareness during the series-deciding third Test in Rawalpindi. As part of

the UNAIDS-ICC initiative, a HIV-positive person accompanied rival skippers Sourav


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Ganguly and Inzamam-ul-Haq out into the middle during the toss. [48] In acongratulatory message to the teams, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said:

AIDS is a common enemy that both India and Pakistan have to fight together. . . . Ascricketers you can win the hearts of your people. As role models, you can encourageyoung people to protect themselves, and urge your leaders to pay more attention tothe epidemic. And by wearing the red ribbon, you show that you care deeply aboutAIDS and about people living with HIV/AIDS, and so help to remove stigma anddiscrimination, a major obstacle in the fight against the epidemic. [49]

Indo-Pakistan cricket, whatever its incidental nature or contextual relevance at one

time or other, is, at least, in part a celebration of a common cricket culture. It takes onits political and commercial importance as much because of this common culture as

because of the history of conflict. The knowledge, appreciation and enthusiasm forcricket are the pre-conditions for the eminence of this tie among global sportingrivalries. The media, however, are certainly not the only responsible parties. For

broadcasters, sponsors and advertisers, the easiest way to maximize the return on theirinvestment in cricket was to inflate its value by infusing it with extraneous emotional

value. They were therefore tempted to hype the series as the ultimate confrontation, acontest of unique importance to the nation, as ‘war minus the shooting’, in George

Orwell’s words. That was where the cricket-loving public of both nations had aresponsibility: ‘to discipline the private sector super patriots, to insist on a sense of

proportion’. [50] Manifestly, emotions run high in cricketing encounters betweenIndia and Pakistan. But the fund of mutual goodwill and friendship out there proved

sufficient to handle these emotions, ensuring that mutual trust and reciprocal faithhave come back at least in Indo-Pak cricketing relations. It is now left to the policy-makers, diplomats and politicians of both countries to toe the line set by cricket when

it comes to resolving outstanding issues in foreign relations.

Indo-Pak Cricket and Nationalism

The partition of 1947 [51] and the resultant turmoil triggered off hatred, distrust and

prejudice in almost every sphere of activity in the subcontinent. Interestingly, it wascricket that formed the first bilateral exchange in 1952 when Pakistan, led by AbdulHafeez Kardar, toured India, evoking a spontaneous albeit tense response. It was

reciprocated two years later when India paid the first official visit under VinooMankad, generating an equally sensitive response. Yet since 1947 a ‘cricket conflict’

brewed simultaneously between the two countries, based on the nationalist antagonismbetween the two teams and backed by passionate fans on both sides. This nationalist

fervour perpetuated by the history of hostility cuts across class, caste, ethnicity andgender and leads to unanimous support for the national team. For millions of Indians

and Pakistanis, cricket has become the ultimate test of patriotic zeal and loyalty. On andoff the pitches, cricket fans vent their passions against the enemy country – the other –

in forms that range from the funny to grotesque. Those among ‘us’ whomay happen to


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support ‘them’ for their sportsmanship usually get rebuked for their suspected sense ofnationalism, citizenship and loyalty. As one sports writer has recently commented:

Today Indo-Pak cricket offers a striking case study to see how a political conflictbetween two states has trickled down to themass level and saturated themass psyche tosuch an extent, that political hostilities are not only played on the Line of Control butalso on the cricket field. This mass psyche of a purported nationalist conflict has beenalso revved by years of state propaganda against the enemy country, which permeatedin all forms of interaction and exchange with the enemy – be it sports or war. [52]

Although it has recently been argued quite rightly by a young sports historian that

the communal character of cricket sometimes enhances its commercial prospects, [53]in the light of the past 16 years’ experience of turbulence and instability in Indian

politics, the desirability of such a development is a questionable proposition. In thecontext of the present political equation, where the lines between nationalism andcommunalism sometimes seem to be extremely blurred and ambiguous in the post-

Godhra age, [54] as well as the rising heat of Indo-Pak foreign relations over theKashmir issue after Pokhran [55] and Kargil, [56] an India-Pakistan cricket match in a

major tournament such as the World Cup in its public appeal cannot be isolated fromits overtly political/communal overtones. [57] Victory or defeat in such a match is now

looked upon as a test of national superiority.Sport, particularly cricket, between these two countries has always been played with

nationalist fervour – and even fear. Many of the early Tests between India and Pakistanwere drawn, both teams showing an excess of caution, petrified of losing to their

neighbour. A loss against any other team did not matter – both teams were habituallosers until the 1970s – but a defeat by their neighbour rankled deeply. Abbas Ali Beg’spromising career is said to have been derailed because of an average run of scores

against Pakistan, when a similar streak against any other side would not have mattered.Javed Miandad’s last-ball six off Chetan Sharma still rankles in the Indian psyche as a

low point for the nation. In every World Cup, Indians treated their game againstPakistan with as much importance as the tournament itself, not caring if they lost the

cup as long as they beat Pakistan. When Pakistan lost the 1996 World Cup match inBangalore, the house of captain Wasim Akram was stoned.

Sport has always been described in terms of war. Games are often described as‘battles’, teams are often said to have been ‘routed’, ‘slaughtered’ or ‘demolished’, in avocabulary of alpha-male aggression. ‘Sport is an unfailing cause of ill-will,’ said

George Orwell. In a celebrated essay written in 1945, Orwell argued:

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill betweenthe nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet oneanother at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on thebattlefield. Even if one didn’t know from concrete examples (the 1936 OlympicGames, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred,one could deduce it from general principles. [58]

The point Orwell went on to make was that all sport was competitive, and involvedwinning or losing, and thus pride. A sport between nations thus took on bigger


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proportions, as it involved national pride – much as war would. Indeed, Orwell wasbold enough to question the very act of playing and following sport that is

representational: ‘as soon as the question of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that youand some larger unit will be disgraced if you lose, the most savage combative instincts

are aroused’. [59] He did not of course suggest that ‘sport is one of the main causes ofinternational rivalry; big scale sport is itself, I think, merely another effect of the causes

that have produced nationalism’. [60] Sport thus remains to Orwell ‘a mimic warfare. . . bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic

pleasure in witnessing violence’. [61] While many other bi-national rivalries exist insport – the Ashes in cricket and Brazil–Argentina in soccer for example – none arequite so fierce and filled with ‘ill-will’ as that between India and Pakistan.

The media in the twenty-first century perhaps play the most important role inrepresenting sport as a metaphor for war. Whenever India and Pakistan play each

other in cricket, the media talk of the game as a metaphor for war – and perversely,with a sense of glee and anticipation. The feelings that India–Pakistan cricket inspires

are extreme, and sentiments like pride and honour are affected by victory or defeat,much as they would be in a war. [62] Naturally, when India prepared for a full tour of

Pakistan in March–April 2004, media representations began to mould the publicimagining of the same in more ways than one.

Diplomacy, Nationalism and the Goodwill Series

The two countries did not play any series twice for long – between 1961 and 1978, andbetween 1990 and 1999 – due to political bad blood. Then should we make the point

that cricket has the capacity to break the political jinx? Rohit Brijnath thinksotherwise: ‘Cricket will not heal wounds. But perhaps it can play a minor role. Perhaps

this experiment can only work if we remember it is just cricket, that no nation is alesser one for losing or a superior one for winning.’ [63] Yet in most circles, the

resumption of cricket ties was seen as a political breakthrough, elevating cricket to oneof the confidence-building measures that the two countries have gingerly embarked

upon. The most glaring example of this attitude is Shaharyar M. Khan, in writing hisclassic Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, which throws light on his experiences as manager ofPakistan cricket team’s tour of India (January to April 1999) and of South Africa

(January to March 2003), who acknowledged at the outset:

I had not intended to publish my impressions until the unexpectedly warm welcomeby the people of India to the ‘enemy’ team. Their enthusiastic response planted theseed in my mind that cricket’s vast untapped energy could be harnessed forunderstanding and tolerance. . . . After a lifetime in diplomacy, attempting, mostunsuccessfully, to overcome tension, hostility and conflict, I realized that cricketcould act as bridge of peace. [64]

And while reflecting on overall impressions of the tour, he felt that ‘its primary successhad been at the political and public relations level’. [65] His continuous attempt to

directly relate cricket to issues of politics and diplomacy was quite obvious:


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As the tour progressed, the groundswell of public acclaim provided the ideal stage inboth countries for Mr Vajpayee’s bus journey to Lahore. The 40,000 strong crowd inChennai giving a standing ovation to the victorious Pakistan team, ordinary peoplelined deep in Gwalior to wave the team good bye, the remarkable warmth shown toPakistani visitors in Mohali where Sikh girls painted both Indian and Pakistani flagson their cheeks, the spontaneous chants of ‘Pakistan-Hindustan dosti Zindabad’ bythe Pakistani element of the crowd, were images that seemed unbelievable when seenagainst the backdrop of the Shiv Sena threat to the team before the tour began andthe daily vitriol exchanged between the two governments. The Indian public’sresponse seemed to carry a clear message. It was, that though the two countries hadbeen to war three times in fifty years, faced off, eyeball to eyeball, across the Line ofControl in Kashmir and had exploded nuclear devices to intimidate each other, thetime had come for peace and mutual respect, so that poverty, violence and despaircould be turned back. This message was as clear as the minarets of the Taj Mahal on asunny day. [66]

In 2004, when people on both sides yearned for peace, the cricket tour, it was argued,

after all the hype of uncertainty and security concerns, ‘should pave a new road toconstructive friendship and understanding’. [67] While the tour provided a greatopportunity to the Pakistan government to demonstrate to the rest of the world its

willingness to shake off its bad image that had grown up since the demolition of theWorld TradeCenter on 9/11, it could also help re-educate theminds of India and Pakistan

conditioned to think in traditional ways about each other. As Asif Iqbal rightly puts it:

It is good to see politicians of India and Pakistan finally batting together for the causeof peace and cricket in the subcontinent. I mention both peace and cricket in thesame sentence advisedly, for here is a situation in which both can feed off each other,each enhancing and enriching the other. If nothing else the tour will show the leadersof the two countries how much genuine affection there is between people on eitherside of the great divide and that, hopefully, will cause many to stop and ponder. [68]

Imran Khan, the legendary Pakistani cricketer, also argued that ‘When the two

countries are trying to become friendly, cricket plays a healing role, cricket becomes acement in bonding the countries together.’ [69] Saba Karim’s comment is perhaps

most revealing in this context: ‘When the relation between the two nations is strained,sportspersons can act as ambassadors and go a long way to heal the rifts.’ [70] It was

thus obvious that the tour had had a political dimension as teams played in anemerging climate of rapprochement and peace. Even Colin Powell, the US secretary of

state, on his visit to India during the series in March expressed hope that theenthusiasm generated by the revival of cricketing ties would certainly have a positiveimpact on the bilateral peace process. [71]

For Indians and Pakistanis, the people of the other nationality have beendehumanized through decades of mutual distrust and nationalistic propaganda. That

is why intellectuals in both countries stress the importance of people-to-peoplecontact, so that the other can be seen as human again, and one can feel empathy with

him/her. Cricket can definitely play a part in this process. It has been argued with someconviction that ‘the more we see our opponents, the more we are exposed to their


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humanness, and the less the mythic differences seem’. [72] The Indo-Pak seriespromised and provided a unique opportunity to humanize, if not normalize

the strained relations between the two nations. The cricketing skills on display, theemotions on the field, all draw people on one side towards the other side – and

the appreciation can sometimes go beyond national pride. The spontaneous applausethat the Pakistan team got from the Chennai crowds when they won the enthralling

Test there in 1999 is a great example of this spirit. The cordial and hearty reception ofthe Indian team on their arrival in each of the cities of Pakistan, the presence of

sporting crowds at every venue cheering with passion on the occasion of every Indianvictory with true sportsmanlike spirit, and the overall attitude of friendliness andhospitality during the 2004 tour also provided a series of such desired occasions. [73]

That exposure to cricketers and ex-cricketers from the other country can also helpfoster an ambience of mutual benefit is perfectly illustrated by The Shaz and Waz Show,

jointly hosted by Ravi Shastri and Wasim Akram, two popular Indian and Pakistaniex-cricketers on ESPN-Star Sports. If the two nations play cricket regularly, it seems,

then perhaps it can move from being a metaphor for war to a vehicle of peace.

Conclusion: Pakistani Cricket at the Crossroads

As in India, cricket unites Pakistan: it is the common thread that binds Swat to

Sindh, Lahore to Larkana and Quetta. The young play the game everywhere, in thefields of Punjab and the rugged mountains of Baluchistan and the NWFP. Cricket,

earlier centred mostly in Lahore and Karachi, has now stretched to Burewala, Multan,Sialkot, Swat, Gilgit, Turkham and other relatively inaccessible areas. Players fromprovincial cities and different ethnic-religious backgrounds are now well represented

in the national squad. More importantly, cricket is no longer the preserve of the eliteor the educated in Pakistan, ‘it is the all-consuming passion of the common man, the

worker, the clerk, the bus-driver, the student, the rag merchant, even the housewife’.[74] It has swept all other sports aside to become the number one sport of the

country. However, despite cricket’s immense popularity in Pakistan, it does not yethave the gloss and glitter that India does. As one cricket commentator has remarked,

‘it does not have a developed celebrity culture, nor the economic clout that industryprovides to Indian cricket’. [75] Ace Pakistani cricketers are definitely considered asnational heroes and respected for their feats, but their stature is not magnified

beyond limits and they are not viewed as greatest stars. This is probably due to ‘thelimited reach of the media, and the fact sport cannot feed on the financial clout of an

expanding economy’. [76] That is why commercial benefits, including personalendorsement opportunities, are still very limited for cricketers in Pakistan. Yet

cricketers receive official recognition: every cricket stadium has stands named afterrenowned cricketers, their pictures prominently displayed in cricket offices, dressing

rooms and conference halls.While cricket is far from becoming an industrial force in Pakistan, the game’s

administration and management have certainly showed signs of improvement in


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recent times. The PCB has of late tried to address the issues that pose challenges to thesmooth and steady development of domestic and international cricket in Pakistan. As

part of this, central to the scheme, is the setting up of a cricket academy at the GaddafiStadium, Lahore, which is part finishing school, part research and training centre and

part a high-performance centre for polishing the skills of its cricket elite. The academyis well equipped with most modern training facilities, with excellent indoor nets, a

swimming pool, residential accommodation and a library. In the next phase, abiomechanics lab and a cricket museumwill be added. Emphasis is also being given on

an ambitious junior programme, comprising a nationwide coaching and tournamentstructure, resembling the Indian model of extensive age-group competitions. At thesenior first-class level, focus is being shifted from corporate teams competing in the

national championship to regional state teams. The PCB is also paying adequateattention to upgrade infrastructural facilities at different stadiums. Rawalpindi, Lahore

and Karachi have installed lights at huge cost. However, the PCB has to ensure thatmore and more international matches are played at these venues so that the investment

shows a worthy return.The challenge for Pakistan cricket in the new century is manifold. But the most

crucial point is how Pakistan cricket would adapt to the changing priorities of theglobal game in the age of cricket’s continuous evolution as a highly commercial force.It requires not only talent on the field, but immense professional ability and maturity

off the field to channel the new potentials which cricket will thrive on. However, giventhe way institutional mess and administrative incoherence produced a series of

unpredictable and inexplicable changes in the recent past, stability is the key factorcricketers, administrators and fans in Pakistan should earnestly strive for. Exceptional

talent needs to be balanced by professional management of the game by a stable andmature administration. To be more explicit, cricket in Pakistan ranks high in terms of

its tradition, performance, culture and mass following; what it requires to ‘re-take off ’is proper direction. A transition certainly seems to have begun of late in this direction.

The uphill task would be to sustain the momentum in the long run.

Notes

[1] Noman, Pride and Passion, 35.[2] Khan, Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, viii.[3] Miandad, Cutting Edge, 306.[4] Mudar Patherya, ‘Textbook Shots’, India Today, March 2004, 80.[5] Wasim Akram, the Pakistani captain on tour to India in 1998–9 is reported to have said this.

Quoted in Bhattacharya, Pundits from Pakistan, 11.[6] Khan, Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, vii.[7] Quoted in Noman, Pride and Passion, 16.[8] Arif Abbasi in conversation with Rahul Bhattacharya. Quoted in Bhattacharya, Pundits from

Pakistan, 48–9.[9] Gideon Haigh used this phrase. See for details Samiuddin, ‘A Quick History’.[10] Ibid., 42.


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[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Noman, Pride and Passion, 25.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid., 42.

[16] Ibid., 43.

[17] Ibid., 47.

[18] Ibid., 48.

[19] Ibid., 48–9.

[20] Aaqib Javed in conversation with Rahul Bhattacharya. Quoted in Bhattacharya, Pundits from

Pakistan, 150.

[21] Ibid. 152.

[22] Bhattacharya, Pundits from Pakistan, 39.

[23] Arif Abbasi in conversation with Rahul Bhattacharya. Quoted in Bhattacharya, Pundits from

Pakistan, 48.

[24] Noman, Pride and Passion, 351.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Manjrekar, ‘Wild Passions’.

[27] Ibid.

[28] Waheed Khan, ‘An Unending Soap Opera’, The Week (Kochi, India), 14 March 2004, 24.

[29] Khan, Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, 87–8.

[30] Khan, ‘An Unending Soap Opera’, 26.

[31] Bakht, ‘More Lost Than Gained’.

[32] Khan, Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, 92.

[33] Mathur, ‘An Inside View of Pakistan’, The Sportstar, 13 March 2004, 23.

[34] Bhattacharya, Pundits from Pakistan, 50.

[35] Miandad, Cutting Edge, 319–20.

[36] Ibid.


[38] Muralidhar Reddy, ‘Pakistan Has a Lot to Gain, The Sportstar, 28 Feb. 2004, 18.

[39] Rameez Raza, ‘Board Games’, India Today, March 2004, 48.


[41] Ibid.

[42] Neeru Bhatia, “The Scent of Money”, The Week (Kochi, India), 14 March 2004, 32.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Ibid.

[45] Ibid.

[46] Ibid.

[47] The team issued an appeal asking its country’s doctors back home to come forward to save life

of ten-year-old Huba Shahid, who was diagnosed with rabdomy sarcoma, or facial cancer.

[48] ‘Pakistan Notebook’, The Sportstar, 24 April 2004, 17.

[49] Ibid.

[50] Mike Marqusee, ‘Border Crossings’, India Today, March 2004, 68.

[51] India and Pakistan emerged as independent nation-states on 15 August 1947 as the British left

India.

[52] Reddy, ‘Pakistan Has a Lot to Gain’, 19.

[53] For details see Boria Majumdar, ‘Communalism to Commercialism: Study of Anti-Pentangular

Movement’, Economic and Political Weekly, 15 Feb. 2003, 656–64.

[54] A few years back, at a railway station in Godhra, Gujarat, two train compartments packed with

Hindu political activists caught fire, killing almost all the passengers in those compartments.


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This incident triggered off a series of communal clashes in different parts of India, particularlyin Gujarat, where the ruling BJP-led state government was held responsible for inaction toprevent this heightened communal assault on the Muslims, thereby hardening sociopoliticalrelations between the two communities and defaming India’s secular face.

[55] In early 1999 India’s successful nuclear test at Pokhran, reciprocated shortly after by similartests by Pakistan, led to heightened political tension in South Asian diplomatic relations.

[56] Cross-border infiltration into Indian Kashmir reached a peak in the late 1990s, culminating in awar between India and Pakistan in the mountainous range of Kargil adjacent to the Line ofControl in mid-1999. The Indian army fought successfully to combat the infiltration and pushback the Pak-sponsored army.

[57] For an interesting discussion on the complex interplay of identities – Hindu, Muslim or Indian– during an Indo-Pak cricket match in a World Cup, see Dasgupta, ‘Manufacturing Unison’.

[58] George Orwell, ‘The Sporting Spirit’, quoted in Verma, ‘The Humanising Factor’, 46.[59] Orwell, ‘he Sporting Spirit’ quoted in Bhattacharya, Pundits from Pakistan, 16.[60] Ibid.[61] Ibid.[62] Verma, ‘The Humanising Factor’, 46.[63] Rohit Brijnath, ‘India-Pakistan: Why We Need to Remember This is Just Sport’, The Sportstar,

28 Feb. 2004, 9.[64] Khan, Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, vii.[65] Ibid., 92.[66] Ibid.[67] S. Thyagarajan, ‘The Tour Should Pave a New Road to Constructive Friendship’, The Sportstar,

28 Feb. 2004, 29.[68] Asif Iqbal, ‘Change of Pace’, India Today, March 2004, 36.[69] The Statesman, 11 March 2004, 12.[70] Saba Karim, ‘The Soothing Balm That Sports Can Be’, The Statesman, 25 Feb. 2004, 13.[71] Ananda Bazar Patrika, 18 March 2004.[72] Verma, ‘The Humanising Factor’, 47.[73] Rameez Raja, CEO of the Pakistan Cricket Board, told Wisden Asia Cricket that the crowds for

this series were the most sporting he had seen for any series in Pakistan, let alone one againstIndia: ‘I mean, I have never in my experience seen Indian and Pakistani flags stitched together.’Indian vice-captain Rahul Dravid also maintained: ‘Everywhere we went we have been cheered.The guys who fielded at the boundary kept saying how appreciative the crowd have been.’ Forfurther details on this aspect, see Bhattacharya, ‘A Glow of Warm Feeling’, 31.

[74] Khan, Cricket: A Bridge of Peace, 179.[75] Mathur, ‘An Inside View of Pakistan’, 22.[76] Ibid.

References

Bakht, Sikander. “More Lost Than Gained.” Wisden Asia Cricket 3, no. 5 (April 2004): 39.Bhattacharya, Rahul. “A Glow of Warm Feeling.” Wisden Asia Cricket 4, no. 5 (April 2004): 28–32.———. Pundits from Pakistan: On Tour with India, 2003–04. London: Picador, 2005.Chatterjee, Kingshuk. “To Play Or Not To Play: Fabricating Consent over the Indo-Pak Cricket

Series.” In Sport in South Asian Society: Past and Present, edited by Boria Majumdar andJ.A. Mangan. London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 277–94.

Dasgupta, Jishnu. “Manufacturing Unison: Muslims, Hindus and Indians during the India-PakistanMatch.” In Sport in South Asian Society: Past and Present, edited by Boria Majumdar and J.A.Mangan. London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 239–48.


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Khan, Shaharyar. Cricket: A Bridge of Peace. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Manjrekar, Sanjay. “Wild Passions.” Wisden Asia Cricket 3, no. 4 (March 2004): 48.Miandad, Javed. (with Saad Shafqat) Cutting Edge: My Autobiography. Karachi: Oxford University

Press, 2003.Noman, Omar. Pride and Passion: An Exhilarating Half Century of Cricket in Pakistan. Pakistan:

Oxford University Press, 1997.Samiuddin, Osman. “A Quick History.” Wisden Asia Cricket 3, no. 5 (April 2004): 36–42.Verma, Amit. “The Humanising Factor.” Wisden Asia Cricket 3, no. 4 (March 2004): 46–7.


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Pakistani Cricket at Crossroads: An Outsider's Perspective

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Transcript of Pakistani Cricket at Crossroads: An Outsider's Perspective