Lord’s the home of cricket is two hundred years old and to celebrate its bicentenary the MCC the owners of the ground play the Rest of the World in a match today in which three Pakistan stars — Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal — will be featuring alongside legends like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne.

The last two above Sachin and Warne will lead their respective star-studded teams for the MCC and ROW in a 50-over match which will be played in white clothes and with a red ball.

For those interested in history, record and statistics I must mention here that this certainly is not the original Lord’s cricket ground though. In fact it is the third one since 1787 when Thomas Lord a Yorkshire born bowler developed the first at Dorset Square and the second next to the Regent Canal not far away but had to abandon them to move to the present location in 1814 as builders and the local council’s demand increased for developing the area for building houses.

Lord and his family have moved from Yorkshire to London to seek fortune in doing all kinds of business but his love of the game kept him well involved in the game and he is recorded to have played 90 first-class matches between 1787 and 1802.

The present cricket ground had its first Test played in 1884 when England defeated Australia by an innings and five runs and Australia’s first win here was in 1888 by 61 runs.

Lord’s 100th Test was played when England met the West Indians and also Lord’s has the honour of hosting the 2000th Test of history when England played India here in 2011. I am glad to say that I was present on both the 100th and 2000th Tests here.

I have been to most of the Test grounds of the world but Lord’s has its own aura and atmosphere where rich and poor, the royals, lords and ladies mingle to watch the greats of the game and also see history made and records tumble.

To score a hundred or take five wickets in an innings or ten wickets in a match on this sacred turf is marked by the player’s name imprinted in the dressing rooms and also in the old cricket museum.

Sachin Tendulkar, the highest run-maker in Test history who will be leading MCC in the match today, surprisingly has never scored a Test century here but he did score one when playing in Princess Diana’s memorial game in the late nineties.

I did not watch Nasim-ul-Ghani become the first Pakistani to make a Test century in England here in 1962, but I did watch the great Hanif Mohammad score a brilliant 187 as captain of Pakistan in 1967. Nor would I forget the double centuries scored by Mohsin Khan in 1987 and Mohammad Yousuf in 2006.

Pakistan first played here in 1954 and India its inaugural Test in 1932. I have been watching matches at Lord’s since 1964 and covered Tests

from 1974, and obviously have seen some great feats achieved both by the batsmen and bowlers of every country. How can I forget India being bowled out for 46 in a Test here against England in 1974 and the stunning exhibition of batsmanship by Gordon Greenidge who scored a lightening double century while West Indies chased just over 320 runs to win.

The first three World Cups have special memories too but what really always fascinates me was the sight of the Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev hitting four sixes in a row off Eddie Hemmings to avoid the follow on when India needed 24 runs with last wicket in.

In 1990, I watched Graham Gooch make 333 and 123 to become the only triple century maker in Tests at Lord’s and that was against the Indian tourists.

Imran Khan, Wasim and Waqar, Mudassar Nazar to name a few from Pakistan gave me as much pleasure as did others like Viv Richards, Jayawardene, Vengsarkar who made three centuries here on various tours. I also recall with fondness the brilliant performances of Clive Lloyd, Lillee, Warne and all those who played on, what is for everyone, a home of cricket.

Published in Dawn, July 5th , 2014