‘Haris Rauf gives 20/10 to Hyderabadi Biryani in India!’
This was how popular Pakistani cricket show host, Fakhr-e-Alam, kicked off his show ‘The Pavilion’ on the A Sports channel of the ARY network as the 2023 ICC World Cup got underway.
‘Cricket is beyond politics and toxicity’, Alam said early in his show, thanking Indian fans for the warm welcome that the Pakistan cricket team received on landing in India. We’ve all seen those viral videos.
Even Alam’s experts on the show, which included top Pakistan cricketers – Wasim Akram, Misbah-ul-Haq, and Shoaib Malik – didn’t hold back in their praise.
Shoaib Malik, admittedly a ‘damaad’ of Hyderabad, since he is married to Sania Mirza, pointed out how India has played their first two matches of the World Cup without Shubhman Gill, India’s leading run-scorer in ODIs this year, and done it without breaking into a sweat. In contrast, he pointed out how Pakistan, who have lost pace starlet Naseem Shah to injury in this World Cup, is almost in a panic about its bowling attack.
Akram spoke about how smoothly Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul had returned to Team India after injuries, immediately taking wickets and scoring runs. It pointed towards India’s flawless rehab process, which he said was part of India’s new cricket ‘system’ that has evolved over the last 15 years, and is paying off now.
Both spoke about the depth of India’s bench strength that’s been built up steadily, about how every team member is secure and understands his role, and also about the maturity and transparency of India’s current cricket team management.
I was struck – not just by the appreciation itself – but also by the frankness of it. Hidden in this wholesome praise for Indian cricket, I sensed a strong, unspoken sense of disappointment with the state of Pakistan cricket. About how the ‘system’ in Pakistan has not lived up to the abundant cricket talent that the country has.
And I think Alam was actually making a veiled comment about how he perceived cricket in Pakistan – irretrievably mixed up with politics and toxicity – which has over the years, all but choked it.
Throwback – When an Indo-Pak Cricket Clash Wasn’t a Rarity
Let’s rewind a bit.
Despite the Kargil War of 1999, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was keen to bury the acrimony, and pushed for the renewal of cricket ties. As a result, between 2004 and 2007, India and Pakistan played each other every year. This included India’s memorable 2004 tour of Pakistan which India won 2-1, including its first-ever test win in Pakistan in Multan, where Virender Sehwag scored his incredible 309 runs.
There was a flurry of ODI and Test matches between the two countries during that period, a time when the two teams were fairly evenly matched, both sides bursting with talent. The last match in December 2007 in Bangalore was a draw, but memorable for Saurav Ganguly’s 239 in the first innings.
After that, the fortunes of Indo-Pak cricket nosedived. In 2008 came the 26/11 terror attacks, in which 175 people were killed. All 10 attackers, members of the Lashkar e Taiba (LeT), were Pakistani citizens. An outraged India has played no bilateral cricket with Pakistan since then, barring one brief ODI and T20 series in December 2012. We have not played a single test match since 2007. We have only met at ICC and ACC tournaments, just white-ball matches, few and far between, starving cricket fans from both nations of Indo-Pak clashes.
12 Terrorists Chaperones 200 Million Into Cricket Starvation
But it has been far tougher for Pakistan cricket. In 2009, 12 terrorists opened fire on the bus taking the touring Sri Lankan team to Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium. The Lankan cricketers had to be evacuated by helicopter from the stadium. For the next 10 years, no cricket-playing country was prepared to play in Pakistan.
In 2011, further insult followed, as Pakistan was dropped as a co-host of the 2011 World Cup. Even as recently as 2021, the New Zealand government called off a tour of Pakistan citing security reasons, even though the Kiwi cricket team had already landed in the country.
Despite the challenges, the fact that Pakistan has continued to produce fine cricketing talent in every department of the game, but has found very limited space to showcase it, has been frustrating for Pakistan’s cricketers and fans. Some countries have agreed to play them, but only at neutral venues outside Pakistan, in places like Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
The irony which does not escape either the Pakistani fans or Pakistan’s cricket heroes, is that despite all this, the fans have remained fanatically faithful over all these years. For instance, the 2019 ODI World Cup match between India and Pakistan had 273 million TV viewers – more than 4 times the entire population of France! Surely, such devotion must be paid back. But in Pakistan, that has not really happened.
Pakistan’s Toxic Cocktail Has Eroded Sports in General, Not Just Cricket
We must also remind ourselves that in sports, both India and Pakistan have fed off each other’s rivalries. Our intense competition in hockey kept both nations ahead of the rest of the world for decades. The cricket rivalry is the stuff of even greater legend, that has repeatedly lifted the performance of both teams.
Long back in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, there was the rivalry of Milkha Singh and Abdul Khaliq on the track, well captured in the Farhan Akhtar film ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’. Even now, it is no accident that in men’s javelin throw, both countries are producing top talents at the same time. While Neeraj Chopra is clearly ahead, his Pakistani rival, Arshad Nadeem is almost up there. India also have Kishore Kumar Jena, DP Manu and Rohit Yadav, all close to world-class.
Endearingly, Pakistan’s other javelin talent, Muhammad Yasir, who came 4th at the Hangzhou Asian Games, sports the exact same long hairstyle as Neeraj Chopra, which is as good as a direct compliment, isn’t it? In fact, when Yasir won a Bronze medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in July 2023, Neeraj called up the 25-year-old Pakistani to congratulate him, which the Pakistani acknowledged at multiple tv interviews thereafter.
As India and Pakistan square up for yet another ODI World Cup clash, as Pakistan try to dent that embarrassing head-to-head 7-0 record, it is worth sparing a thought for Pakistan's cricketers and cricket fans, who have been cheated over the years by the toxic cocktail of politics and militancy.
We should also reflect with some pride on the trajectory that Indian cricket has taken. It’s great to hear from others that is the model to follow. It is also brave (and cool!) of Pakistan's cricket heroes to come out and say so.
Lekin, jeetaga to India!!
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