Shadows Across the Playing Field

by Shashi Tharoor

  After Kargil Vajpayee closed up like a clam when dealing with the architect of Kargil. It took all Advani and Jaswant Singh’s powers of persuasion to have Musharraf invited to Agra in an attempt to resume the road to peace contained in the Lahore Declaration. Regrettably both leaders spectacularly missed the unique opportunity of finding peace at Agra. Confrontation continued and the 1999 tour of India seemed like a mirage. Bilateral series were passed over for security reasons, while both sides traded charges of their intelligence agencies masterminding terrorist attacks. In India explosions on trains and in Parliament were laid at the door of ISI, while Pakistan’s knee-jerk reaction to any explosion was to blame ‘a foreign hand’ meaning RAW.

  Regular exchanges of fire took place across the Line of Control, sometimes killing innocent shepherds and woodcutters. The Indians accused Pakistan of sponsoring cross-border terrorists while Pakistan had a daily programme on PTV – the Kashmir file – in which the Indian Army’s human rights violations were documented. This state of high tension continued until the SAARC Summit in Islamabad in January 2004. On the sidelines of the summit, Vajpayee met Musharraf and agreed to reduce tension and move towards conflict resolution. Overnight the bilateral atmosphere changed for the better and almost the first decision that the two leaders took was to resume the long postponed cricketing ties in which it was India’s turn to visit Pakistan.

  I had taken over as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board only three weeks before the SAARC Summit. My first major challenge was the hosting of the Indian team after a lapse of fifteen years. Of the present generation only Tendulkar as a sixteen year old had played in Pakistan.

  The resumption of bilateral series between the two rivals was received with huge enthusiasm in the public and media. A new generation of players had emerged who had not crossed swords in a bilateral series in Pakistan, even though they had played intermittently in ICC and other tournaments abroad. The Pakistani public had not witnessed, at home, the skills of Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman, Kumble or Harbhajan.

  With barely seven weeks before the tour began, the PCB was faced with a monumental task of formalizing the logistic and administrative arrangements for the tour such as hotels, airline reservations, tickets, security and to have the stadiums and pitches ready for the contest. Normally such a high-profile tour would require at least three months’ preparation.

  The first problem arose with the announcement by Vajpayee’s government, a few days after the SAARC Summit, of general elections in India in the third week of April. This announcement put a spanner in the works with regard to the scheduling of the tour. For India, winning or losing against Pakistan would have a bearing on election results. I had proposed to Jagmohan Dalmiya, the chairman of BCCI, that the six-week tour be held between the first week of March and mid-April with Test Matches preceding the ODI series. Hedging its bets, BCCI proposed that the tour be split in two, the ODIs (which India felt it was more likely to win after its success in the 2003 World Cup at Centurion Park) to be played before the elections and the Test Matches sometime in September. I had long negotiations with Dalmiya over the schedule, rejecting outright the concept of a split tour, but agreed as a compromise to the ODIs being played before the Test Matches.

  The second issue with BCCI related to the scheduling of Karachi for a Test Match that PCB had proposed. Karachi had seen the worst violence in Pakistan’s cities. This violence had been multifaceted: extremist religious parties targeting American and western nationals, Shia-Sunni violence and internecine violence within the Muhajir (MQM) community that was in a majority in Karachi. This violence syndrome in Karachi had been symbolized by the explosion at a hotel where the New Zealand team had been staying, leading to a hasty departure and the cancellation of the remainder of the tour. Since then, cricketing visitors had refused to play in Karachi and tours to Pakistan had been restricted to playing in the Punjab. Moreover, Karachi crowds had always been volatile and it was noted that the previous six international matches in Karachi had seen crowd trouble that required police intervention.

  After a lapse of several years and relative calm, Karachi insisted on a Test Match being scheduled for the Indian tour. It was, by far, Pakistan’s largest city and one of the two centres – Lahore being the other – of cricket in Pakistan. How could Karachi be ignored? Editorials were written and Sindhi politicians began to demand that a Test be scheduled in Karachi. They looked to the new chairman, himself a Karachi resident, to demonstrate an even-handed approach. Personally, I was convinced that Karachi should not be ignored. Admittedly there was violence but the anti-West surge had abated, as had the rivalry within the MQM. The sporadic attacks between the Shia and Sunni religious centres were localized affairs that did not threaten visiting cricket teams.

  Accordingly, I scheduled Karachi in the itinerary for a Test Match. Predictably BCCI reacted against Karachi being included, citing security grounds. I replied that excluding Karachi would lead to huge controversy that could abort the tour before it began. I argued with Dalmiya that during Pakistan’s tour of India in 1999, the PCB had raised no conditions regarding which city we were to play in and had left the issue of team security in the hands of the Indian authorities. All this despite Shiv Sena’s threat addressed directly against the Pakistani team. The sharp-witted Dalmiya retorted, ‘But we did change the venue of the First Test from Mumbai to Chennai for security reasons.’ I was ready for this argument and replied, ‘Jaggoo (Dalmiya), you made the change, we were ready to play anywhere, even in Mumbai.’ Karachi was proving a monumental problem for the tour and I offered an olive branch by suggesting that the BCCI send a security team before we finally decided on the venues. Dalmiya accepted and an Indian security team toured Pakistan in the third week of February – only a fortnight before the tour was scheduled to start.

  We prepared security briefings in every city and the Karachi presentation had to be especially impressive. Our presentation was made at the Governor’s House with the police, rangers, provincial and federal home ministries covering every aspect of the Indian team’s security in Karachi. The presentation was superb and the Indian security team came away highly impressed. They were also impressed by Multan’s new stadium, privately insisting that a Test Match had to be played there. The team then went home while we held our breath over Karachi.

  Meanwhile, I had been talking to common friends and important cricketing figures who had influence with BCCI. Ehsan Mani, the highly impressive president of ICC, was briefed on the importance of Karachi. So was Rajiv Shukla, the trouble-shooting member of Parliament and vice president of BCCI. Of course, I also spoke informally to Jagmohan Dalmiya whom I regarded as a friend. Karachi was a particularly volatile issue and PCB could not possibly exclude it altogether from the itinerary. Otherwise the tour would attract immense hostility even before it began and could be cancelled altogether, negating the very objective that Vajpayee and Musharraf had sought to achieve at the SAARC Summit.

  In the first days of March, Dalmiya telephoned me to say that after the report of the security team, the BCCI had accepted Karachi as a venue for an ODI but not for a Test. I felt this was a fair compromise and the most important factor was that Karachi would be back on the international cricket map after a lapse of almost a decade. The governor of Sindh was content and we decided that Karachi should have the honour of hosting the very first match of India’s first tour in fifteen years. There were a few plaintive letters accusing PCB of a Punjab bias as all three Tests were to be played in the Punjab but I responded in my press conferences that the return of Karachi as an international venue was a major success and that the process needed to be gradual. With a successful ODI behind Karachi, the next step would be to host a Test. This is actually what happened.

  Now, everything seemed set for the tour, with the media and public on both sides of the border eagerly anticipating the series. However, one final security glitch had to be overcome. Only a few days before the tour began, there were reports in the Indian press that wives
of India’s star players were refusing to allow their husbands to tour in a hostile, enemy country. Dalmiya telephoned me that this was a serious issue as the players concerned had called on him and were reluctant to proceed. I replied to Dalmiya through a press conference in which I reaffirmed that PCB and the Government of Pakistan would take full responsibility for player security and that head of state level security would be provided to the Indian team. The assurances overcame Indian doubts and the wives’ issue blew over.

  With negative issues resolved, I turned to the challenge of making India’s path-breaking tour a success. This involved three issues: visas and tickets, crowd and team behaviour at the matches and our welcome to the Indian team, media and supporters during the tour.

  Thanks to a computer genius, PCB organized for the first time in its history, computer-based tickets. These tickets could not be forged as computer machines would easily detect forgeries. The tickets were also made available on the internet so that Pakistani and Indian supporters living abroad could purchase them by paying in foreign exchange.

  The PCB also negotiated the issue of ‘cricket visas’ with the Ministry of Interior and it was agreed that 8000 visas would be issued to Indian nationals for the five-week tour. An Indian supporter needed only to show his ticket or internet receipt to any Pakistani Embassy who would issue the applicant a cricket visa without going through the laborious process that our bureaucracies required for normal visas.

  As regards team behaviour, I impressed at team meetings and separately with captain Inzamam that though we should play hard, jarring incidents needed to be avoided as they could escalate and affect crowd behaviour. Sledging also had to be kept under strict control. Pakistan was under scrutiny of the entire world that had falsely portrayed the country as violent, undisciplined and a terrorist haven. It was for the team to project an image of discipline, sportsmanship and good behaviour. Inzamam was a mature and level- headed captain who quickly understood the political ramifications of a successful tour. He assured me that he and his team would not let the country down.

  It was equally important that our crowds should not reflect the political hostility that existed between the South Asian neighbours and should treat the matches not as political battles in which national prestige was at stake but as sporting contests. In several press conferences and television interviews before the tour, I exhorted Pakistanis to treat the cricket matches as sporting contests in which winning and losing was part of the game. The Indian team’s visit provided an opportunity to show the world that Pakistan was peaceful, hospitable and a moderate, tolerant society. I referred to the welcome given to the Pakistani team in Chennai and Mohali by Indian crowds and challenged our own people to rise to the occasion by providing our traditional hospitality to the Indian team and fans.

  Finally, the icing on the cake for the series would be provided by the visit to Pakistan by glamorous Indian personalities from the glitzy world of Bollywood, politics, industry and showbiz. With elections round the corner, prime ministers and senior politicians were unlikely to find the time but Dalmiya informed me that Priyanka Gandhi, her husband and brother Rahul were intending to attend the Karachi ODI. I immediately sent out an invitation which they accepted. I had telephoned my friend Nusli Wadia, Jinnah’s grandson, to be my personal guest for any of the matches and he telephoned me back to say that his mother, Dina Wadia, was visiting from New York and he had suggested that she join him for a visit to Pakistan. Dina Wadia was hesitant because of the political ramifications of the Quaid-e- Azam’s daughter’s first visit to Pakistan since her father’s death. Nusli suggested that I join him in trying to persuade her. I was only too happy to do so and at the end of our telephone conversation she said ‘Let me think about it’. Within 24 hours Nusli phoned me to say his mother had agreed on the condition that she came privately as my guest and not as a guest of the government. I immediately agreed and telephoned President Musharraf who gladly extended all facilities for her security and comfort and asked me to inform Dina Wadia that her visit would be strictly private, no television interviews, no lunches or dinners or formal functions. The visit of Quaid’s daughter, grandson and great grandsons was given low-key publicity but their visit to Lahore and to Karachi, where Dina visited her father’s mausoleum, had a deep impact on the people of Pakistan. The India-Pakistan series had led to Jinnah’s family visiting Pakistan for the first time in over fifty years. Though the visit was private, crowds waited patiently outside the main gate and gave Dina a huge welcome on every occasion that she visited the stadium. I could see that Dina was emotionally moved by the welcome that the people of Pakistan spontaneously gave her. Dina made only one statement in Pakistan but it was a telling one. When asked after her visit to her father’s mausoleum when would she return to Pakistan she replied, ‘When the ideals for which my father sacrificed his life have been achieved.’ Apart from the Quaid’s family, HH Gayatri Devi, the Rajmata of Jaipur – a long-standing family friend – accepted my invitation. She remains one of the most beautiful women in the world and her presence in the chairman’s box added grace and lustre to the occasion.

  When the tour began the government, the board, the police, the security agencies were on tenterhooks as the teams gathered in Karachi. I had stuck my neck out to have Karachi included in the itinerary. Would the Karachi crowd repeat the violence of the past? Would they behave? Would they live up to the challenge that the Karachi fans were sporting and welcoming to Indian visitors? How would Pandit Nehru’s great grandchildren react to Karachi?

  The answers to these questions came quickly. The stadium was full to the brim and as India batted with Tendulkar and Sehwag smashing Pakistan’s array of fast bowlers all over the ground, there was fulsome applause for the Indian star batsmen. The crowds cheering gained momentum as the innings progressed with Dravid on 99 being clapped on from the stands to his century, the same Dravid who, along with other stars, had expected a hostile reaction in Pakistan! As the clapping reached a crescendo, it seems that Dravid was so overwhelmed by the crowd’s applause that he was bowled for 99!

  When Pakistan batted, Inzamam scored a magnificent century and took Pakistan near India’s huge total. We lost by 5 runs in a riveting game of cricket. The crowd enjoyed the match which had seen the highest ever total in an ODI and went home happy and satiated by the cricket. Not a word of anger was uttered and the Karachi crowd’s sporting and magnanimous behaviour had exorcised all security demons. The media was full of the contrast between the Karachi crowd’s behaviour in the past and its spontaneous welcome for the Indian team. They had matured amazingly – winning and losing seemed now part of the game!

  During the match Priyanka and Rahul had left the chairman’s box to the consternation of their security guards, and waded into the public stands where they were given a warm welcome, exchanging high-spirited banter with Pakistani spectators.

  The outstanding success of the Karachi ODI set the tone for the remaining series. Everywhere the Indian team went, they were welcomed with immense enthusiasm. They narrowly lost the next two matches in Rawalpindi and Peshawar but easily won the last two games at Lahore, ending an exciting ODI series that had seen crowd behaviour at its sporting best.

  By the time the last two ODIs were played in Lahore, a veritable cross-border invasion of Indian supporters had taken place. They came by train, bus and air, the industrial moguls in their private jets. The quota of 8000 visas was somehow exceeded so that 20,000 Indian visitors witnessed the cricket matches. Pakistani and Indian fans came from the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Oman, Hong Kong, UK and as far afield as the US and Japan. The Karachi ODI had set an unparalleled high water-mark in crowd conduct so that the Indian team appeared totally relaxed in the Qissa Khwani bazaar of Peshawar, the shops of Anarkali and visits to historic sites. The atmosphere for the tour was festive, like a carnival. Again shopkeepers, restaurant owners, taxi and rickshaw drivers would charge reduced or no fares at all from Indian supporters. The large number of Sikhs cro
ssing over from Punjab were given rousing welcomes especially when visiting their sacred shrines. Wherever they went, Indian supporters were made to feel welcome.

  Before the tour began, I had to make a delicate decision. Should the Indian supporters be placed in a separate stand reserved for them, as was the case in Mohali in 1999, or should they be allowed to mingle freely with Pakistanis? A separate stand was the safer bet but I decided on mixed stands. The result was electric and amazing. Large swathes of Indian fans carrying their flags and chanting slogans mixed with Pakistani fans in a spirit of goodwill and sportsmanlike conduct. There was good-humoured banter between both sets of fans and soon young people exchanged flags and ran about the stands with both flags held high. Young people, especially girls, had their faces painted with emblems from each country on each cheek. Banners of ‘Friendship Series’ and ‘Pak-India dosti zindabad’ appeared all over the ground. The crowds warmed to India’s superstars and made the shy, modest smiling newcomer Balaji their favourite so that every time he fielded the ball a cry of ‘Balaji zindabad’ would reverberate around the stadium. Not a single incident took place during the tour, on or off the field. The fans took the losses that each team suffered with maturity. Unlike the earlier contests the scoring rate was high and the cricket supremely entertaining. India won the exciting ODI series and the Tests two to one. Basically the Indian superstar batsmen tamed Pakistan’s fast bowling threat while Pakistan’s brittle batting could not measure up to India’s slower but disciplined bowlers.