History of one kind or the other has always been created in encounters between the two teams
CRICKET and controversies go hand-in-hand. In it’s 127-year history, international cricket has never been short of it. If we were to number it from the MOST to the LESSER-MOST, the most famous would no doubt be the immortal ‘Bodyline’ controversy of the thirties.
Bombay born Scotsman and English cricket captain Douglas Jardine asked his bowlers Harold Larwood, Bill Bowes and Guby Allen to bowl in-line of the body of the batsmen rather aiming at the stumps to stop the run glut of Don Bradman during ‘The Ashes’ series in Australia. So effective were Jardine’s tactics that relations between the two teams were nearly severed as a result of the tactics.
The second most controversial incident in world cricket would be the confrontation between the then England captain Mike Gatting and the Pakistan umpire Shakoor Rana in a Test at Faisalabad when Rana accused the England captain for incommoding the batsman Salim Malik while he was ready to take strike.
The tiff between the two became so serious that a day’s play was lost during the Test as apologies were sought by the involved parties. England did not tour Pakistan again for 13 years.
Disputes on umpiring decisions, allegations of ball tampering and of late, match-fixing scandal and crowd trouble has all been a part of it. And the encounters between Pakistan and India have never been short of it.
Some of these are interesting to say the least.
BISHEN BEDI WALKS OFF: In the cricket revival series of 1978-79, the Indian captain Bedi walked off in protest of short pitched deliveries by Pakistan bowler Sarfraz Nawaz in a One-Day match at Sahiwal when at the verge of victory. Chasing Pakistan’s 205 for 7 in a 40 over match, India were 183 for 2 with Anshuman Gaekwad having made an unbeaten 78 and Surinder Aamarnath 62 and within whisker of a victory when it happened.
Sarfraz bowled four bouncers in a row and Bedi complained to umpire Khizar Hayat to ask him to call those deliveries ‘wide’. But the umpires had none of it. India needing 23 in 20 balls with eight wickets in hand walked out in protest and the match was awarded to Pakistan.
After the match, Pakistan captain Mushtaq Mohammad commented on the incident: “They should send in taller batsmen so that the ball would not sail over their heads.”
WHEN GAVASKAR WAS LEFT TO SULK: On the 1983-84 tour to India Zaheer Abbas led Pakistan into India. Zaheer had made sure to play safe as he did as all the three Tests ended in drawn games.
With the Test at Bangalore heading towards a dull draw an incident created some excitement in the concluding stages of the game. With seven hours lost to rain and poor light, there was nothing to look up to. India in their innings had made 275 and Pakistan 288 but by that time the last day was already there. There was no chance of a result and game should have been called in the mandatory overs according to Zaheer. Of course Gavaskar didn’t share this thought who was by then aiming for his 28th Test century. He wasn’t at all interested in coming off and this was held true when Zaheer led his men off.
Gavaskar and Gaekwad stayed in the middle until Zaheer was finally persuaded to take his team back to allow Gavaskar reach the landmark. At 87 Gavaskar resumed his innings to get to his hundred. There were still five overs left when finally the acrimony was ended.
DEMONSTRATION RUINED THE DAY: Pakistan was already leading in the series by a margin of 3-0 when they arrived in Karachi for the final Test. The game was heading for a draw when a bunch of students belonging to the right-wing Jamat-e-Islami invaded the ground demonstrating against the arrest of their colleagues by the then Pakistan government.
They started to dig up the pitch, one of them even pulled a stump and made for Imran Khan who was batting with Sarfraz Nawaz. The two backed away. This happened just after lunch on the February 3. Players, both Indian and Pakistanis ran for cover as did the pressmen when the open media enclosure was invaded with batons and lathis by the angry students. Tear gas was fired and all the media men ran for shelter as did the Indian High Commissioner K.D. Sharma and the Consul-General G. Parthasarathy.
The resumption of the match by the umpires was in vain as Molotov Cocktail exploded near the boundary and that was that. The match was called off for the day.
TOUR CALLED OFF: Threats to the Pakistanis asking them not to tour India a couple of years back was not the first time that such threats were made.
Pakistan took on the challenge and sanity in the prevailed as the tour went on. In 1991-92 similar threats had resulted in Pakistan calling off the tour to India to play a series of five One-Day games after the Sharjah tournament.
The Wankhede pitch was dug up in protest as was in Delhi before Pakistan’s tour in 1999. This time the perpetration came from Bal Thackeray’s fiery speech for Shiv Sena.
According to Bombay Cricket Association secretary, Bal Mahadalkar about 15 people had come into the Wankhede with sickles. The guards on the ground ran away in fright. Shiv Sena had also given a call for Bandh on 28th October, the day India and Pakistan were to play each other. The damage had been done. While the tour was to continue with the match in Gwalior, instead of Bombay, more threats resulted in Pakistan calling of the tour altogether.
SRIKKANTH REMONSTRATED IN VAIN: Imran Khan’s generosity cost him dearly during One-Day game in 1987-88, after he allowed West Indian Desmond Haynes to bat again after Haynes was caught leg-before off Saleem Jaffer in Trinidad. However, Haynes paid Imran’s generosity in his own way: he went on to score a hundred and win the match!
Nevertheless, this did not stop Imran from putting on another show of generosity when he asked Krishnamachari Srikkanth the Indian captain, in a Lahore One-Day in 1989-90 series, to stay and have a go at his bowlers again. Srikkanth had been given out leg-before by umpire Shakoor Rana.
However, Imran asked Rana to reverse his decision as Srikkanth showed his displeasure at the verdict. Off the very next delivery the Indian captain, to his embarrassment, was caught before the wicket by Saleem Yousuf.
EDEN GARDEN CLEARED OFF: In the first Test of the Asian Test Championship at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Pakistan had squared off against the hosts.
Tendulkar was bowled the first ball in the first innings and was run-out in the second innings as India batted for a run chase. Shoaib Akhtar the bowler was accused of impeding the Indian batsman while taking a throw from the deep.
It was then that the crowd started throwing rubbish onto the ground and at Pakistani players. The game immediately ground to a halt. On the final day, India was still short of about 43 runs and three of its wickets remained.
When another quick wicket was lost in the morning, the crowd lit bonfires in the stands to halt the match. The referee will not take any of it. The police was then asked to vacate the stands. Nearly 60,000 people were thrown out of the ground and the game continued after an hour’s stoppage with Pakistan claiming the remaining wickets soon after and thus winning the match.
INZAMAM TAKES LAW INTO HIS OWN HANDS: In a Sahara Cup game against India, when an Indian supporter shouted Aaloo (potato) at Inzamam-ul-Haq, the player, not known for losing his cool leaped across the fence into the stands to teach the heckler a lesson, with a bat in his hand. But the Pakistani batsman was restrained by the crowd and police who soon moved onto the scene.
The spectator later sued Inzamam but the case had to be hushed up as the spectator’s lawyer discovered that their client was an illegal immigrant!
INDIAN CAPTAIN HAD HIS SHIRT TORN OFF BY A FANATIC: In the 1989-90 Test at Karachi, a religious extremist leaped over the fence and dashed towards the Indian captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth to vent his anger over the desecration of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in India. He pulled the Indian captain’s shirt and tore it off before he was apprehended by the police.
A shaken Indian captain was rescued by Kapil Dev who too was attacked but managed to keep away from the intruder.
History of one kind or the other has always been created in encounters between the two teams 
