Test Cricket  and Our Cultural Quotient

WE HAD a full house in Lahore  in 1978 when India  played a Test match in Pakistan  after 24 years. When they returned in 1982-83, there were more policemen than spectators at the Qadafi  Stadium.

          It is not as if the crowds had decided to boycott India -Pakistan  Test matches. It has been the same with every other visiting team. People still watch Test matches in India, England , and Australia  and I believe, in Sri Lanka  and the West Indies  too. But here in Pakistan, Test cricket, classical music and other good things of life are on their away out.

          Test cricket, like classical music, requires a special frame of mind. Watching a Test match presupposes that you have come to see cricket at its best, just as you go to a concert of classical music to listen to the best there is in music. Then you want a keen eye, a capacity to appreciate that which is good, and not that which is yours. You need patience also. That which is good is not done at your bidding. A good cricketer builds his innings as a good musician builds a movement.

          In a society which has lost its bearings, in a society in which intolerance is fast replacing forbearance as a way of life, in a society where the gluttons outnumber the epicures, in a society were Faiz  is used as a filler on television, there can be room neither for Hanif Mohammad  nor yet for Raushan Ara Begum.

          Test matches and good music are not played in a vacuum. They die out when the social environ in which they are played is not respectful enough. People who have lost patience cannot have, nor do they deserve Hanif Mohammad  or Raushan Ara Begum. They want a Salim Malik slog in a one-day game or a bastard version of Western  pop, and that is what they get.

          Test cricket is for the discerning eye even as good music is for the discerning ear. But, here, I must tell you about Faiz . A few days ago, I was watching television at home. Naeem Bokhari 's Studio II had just ended but there were a few minutes to go for the 9 o' clock bulletin to go on air. So what did the PTV  do? They put on Tina Sani  singing Faiz Ahmad Faiz . That is how we insult one of our best poets, the greatest of his time. One Aslam Azhar , as I have always said, does not make a television network. How can you have Test cricket in a country where Faiz is used as filler? When a nation's cultural quotient falls, it falls across the board. Test cricket is a way of life but it is not our way of life any more. Give me a Kalashnikov  and some heroin and fill my heart with ethnic intolerance. Cricket and Test cricket at that? Bah! Grow up, man! Test matches are for old baldies.

          Let me tell you something more about Faiz . I was at a friend's place a few weeks ago and they were preparing to play bridge. A foursome was found and the game began. Tina Sani  was singing Faiz on a wonderful music system. As the game progressed, one of the four-some said irritably: "Will someone tune down this awful Sani girl?"

          "But she is singing Faiz ," I remonstrated politely.

"Bridge is serious business, she is breaking my concentration. And, anyhow, I've heard the . . . (expletive deleted) of ten enough and Faiz  is dead meat," said the rate bridge player as he turned off the machine.

          This was not the first time I had seen Faiz  thus treated. He has been relegated to a background diversion by the rich while they exchange scandals, play card games, or eat.

          They say that the one-day game has killed Test cricket. Well, it has not, except in Pakistan  and for reasons we have already noted. There is another cause, also. In recent years, we have had a surfeit of Test cricket.

          To give you an example. Kapil Dev , the Indian  all-rounder, made his Test debut in Faisalabad  on October 16, 1978. At Karachi , this Wednesday, he began his hundredth Test. Had he been a cricketer during 1945-56; he would have played a maximum of, say, 50 games. I am against annual exchanges between the two countries for the simple reasons that familiarity breeds contempt. There should be an interval of four years at least which is to say Pakistan  should not pay a return visit to India  before 1993.

          Let us take a look now at how Pakistan  have played since their inaugural series against India  in 1952-53.

          1952-53: Five Test matches against India ; 1954: Four against England ; 1954-55: Five against India; 1955-56: Three against New Zealand ; 1956-57: One against Australia ; 1957-58: Five against the West Indies ; 1958-59: Three against the West Indies; 1959-60: Three against Australia; 1960-61: Five against India; 1961-62: Three against England; 1962: Five against England; 1962: Five against England; 1964-65: One against New Australia; 1964-65: Three against New Zealand; 1967: Three against England; 1968-69: Three against England; 1969-70: Three against New Zealand; 1971: Three against Australia; 1971-72: Three against Australia;

          1972-73: Three against New Zealand ; 1972-73: Three against England ; 1974: Three against England; 1974-75: Two against the West Indies ; 1976-77: Three against Australia ; 1977-78; Three against England; 1978-79: Two against Australia; 1979-80: Six against India ; 1979-80 Three against Australia; 1980-81: Four against West Indies; 1981-82: Three against England; 1982-83: Three against Australia; 1982-83: Six against India; 1983-84: Three against India; 1983-84: Five against Australia; 1983-84: Three against England; 1984-85: Three against New Zealand; 1985-86: Three against Sri Lanka ; 1986-87: Three against the West Indies, and 1986-87: Five against India.

          From 1952-53 to 1959-60 Pakistan  played 29 Test matches in eight years at 3.62 games a year.

          From 1960-61 to 1979-80, Pakistan  played 51 games at 5.01 Test a year.

          From 1980-81 to 1986-87, Pakistan  played 55 Test at 7.85 games a year.

          As can be seen the per annum number of Test matches has more than doubled in the 80's as compared to the 50's. Personally, I would prefer a return to the incidence prevalent in the 50's.

          Now a look at how the Indians have fared at the National Stadium, Karachi .

          The first Test match between India  and Pakistan  at the National Stadium, Karachi  was played on February 26,27,28, and March 1, 1955. A drawn game, it will be remembered mostly for the 155-run stand between Alimuddin  (103 not out) and A. H. Kardar  (93) during Pakistan's second innings. It was a four-day affair and there was not time enough for India to complete their second innings. Khan Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood  took five wickets each in India's first innings but India's G. S. Ramchand , a medium-pace bowler of little reputation but great charm, took 6 for 49 in Pakistan's first innings.

          SCORES:  Pakistan  162 and 241 for 5 declared. India  145 and 62 for 2. Match drawn.

          Twenty-three years were to elapse before India  played their second Test at Karachi  on November 14, 15, 17, 18, and 19, 1978. And one of the most exciting games between the two countries it was, too. Apart from the pulsating end with Pakistan  winning with just. 1.1 overs to spare, the match will be remembered for Gavaskar 's centuries in both the innings. In the second knock, he carried his bat through the innings. Sarfraz  took 9 wickets in the match and Javed Miandad  hit an even 100 in the first and an unbeaten 63 in the second innings which later effort was largely instrumental in Pakistan's thrilling victory. Nor will one ever forget the great running between the wickets by Miandad and Asif Iqbal  nor yet Imran  Khan's mauling of that most amiable of men, Bishen Singh  Bedi.

          SCORES: India  344 and 300. Pakistan  481 for 9 declared and 165 for two. Pakistan won by eight wickets.

          During 1982-83, India  played two games at Karachi . Then first started on December 23, 1982, and Pakistan  won it on the 27th with more than a day to spare. India were outplayed in every department of the game and lost by an innings and 86 runs. Zaheer Abbas (186) hit the Indian  attack all over the place and added 215 for the fifth wicket with Mudassar Nazar  (115) after Pakistan's first three wickets had fallen for 18 to the gentle but accurate medium pace of Madan Lal whom the later batsmen demolished in one-day style.

          More than Zaheer, it was Imran  Khan's devastating bowling (11 for 79 in the match) which overpowered the Indians. No one who was there will ever forget his last spell in India  second innings, which reduced the visitors from 102 for one to 114 for seven.

          SCORES: India  169 and 197. Pakistan  452. Pakistan won by an innings and 86 runs.

          The second match was played on January 30, 31 and February 1, 3, 4, 1983. Ravi  Shastri , playing as an opener, hit 128 in India 's first innings while the ever-reliable Mohinder Amarnath  hit an unbeaten 103 when India batted again. Mudassar hit 152 in the only innings that Pakistan  played. A boring draw.

          SCORES: India  393 for 8 declared and 224 for 2. Pakistan  420 for 6 declared.

          India  never played at Karachi  during the 1984-85 tour because the visit was cut short after Mrs. Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984. Only two Test matches were played.

          The first Test of the current series started at the National Stadium on Wednesday. I do feel that India  will miss Dilip Vengsarker  their most consistent batsman in recent years, and Mohinder Amarnath , their best bat against pace bowling. But they have brought some talented youngsters in Sanjay Manjrekar, the 15-years old wonder boy, Tendulkar  and Ankola and Razdan, the medium pacers. One hopes, for the sake of a good series, that all of them will come off.

Friday, November 17, 1989