Batting for Pakistan

8220;We are here to honour your invitation and to promote good relationsbetween the two countries8230;We have come to vindicate the honour of our country and to give dignity to the game,8221; Khan told the media, as he glided into a Delhi hotel at the start of the tour.

Moments later, the steel in the former diplomat8217;s voice was evident as he shot a withering look in the direction of one of his boys 8212; in this case captain Wasim Akram 8212; who was about to answer one of those googly questions about the threat to the Pakistani team in India. 8220;We will,8221; said Khan in a voice as smooth as silk, 8220;cross that bridge when we come to it.8221; In other words, he would decide when and whether sports and diplomacy would mix.

In Delhi, most people concur that Khan8217;s appointment as manager of Pakistan8217;s cricket team is a masterstroke unleashed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. For a start, Khan knows the Indian elite like the back of his hand. He could have been the Nawab of Bhopal. When his mother left for Pakistan after partition, the title passed to her younger sister, who then married the Nawabof Pataudi and took on his title. This makes Khan, Tiger8217; Pataudi8217;s first cousin. And despite the bad blood between India and Pakistan over the last 50 years, Khan never forgot that kinship is not spawned by family ties alone. He returned to India again and again, then cemented the relationship by marrying one of his children here.

Some old-school diplomats in Delhi swear that family pedigree is responsible for the gentility of the Khan8217;s professional thrust-and-parry. He has never resorted to the brazen, brutal propaganda tactics of some of his colleagues in the Pakistan Foreign Service. Through the early 8217;90s, which were incidentally the worst years of India-Pakistan diplomacy in recent memory, former foreign secretary J.N. Dixit remembers Khan as a truly courteous, professional diplomat.

8220;Sharyar has no complexes about India. He is rational, practical and believes all problems can be resolved through dialogue even if it takes a long time,8221; said Dixit. Over seven rounds of foreign secretary-leveldialogue that ended in 1994, the 8220;totally matter-of-fact approach8221; adopted by both sides resulted in 14 sets of confidence-building measures, on issues ranging from the Wular barrage to Siachen. Later, Pakistan was to disavow many of those agreements sealed with officials in New Delhi, issues which even today continue to trouble relations between the two nations.

In Pakistan, Khan is widely respected for his ability to ignore controversy. As foreign secretary in 1990, he was upstaged by the same Nawaz Sharif 8212; the prime minister then 8212; who created the post of 8220;secretary general, foreign affairs8221; to accommodate favourite and party faithful, Akram Zaki. The drudge work was to be done by Khan while Zaki was in overall charge. Resentment raged in the foreign office, but Khan went on to complete his tenure without protest. Within months of retirement, he was appointed the UN Secretary-General8217;s special envoy to Rwanda and earned international praise for his skillful handling of many a potentially explosivesituation.

In otherwise drab Islamabad, Khan is marked by his passion for sport. He would often play cricket with other bureaucrats in the green fields overlooking the Margallah Hills. He remains faithful though to the Bhopali hockey tie, a game he follows with a certain fanaticism. Air Chief Marshal S.K. Kaul, who is a regular along with Khan on a non-official Indo-Pakistani second track8217; circuit, retells the anecdote recounted by Khan who was there: even though the Indian hockey team lost a match last year in Rawalpindi to the home side, the crowd forced the losers into a grace lap of honour!

Like many sub-continentals, Khan8217;s heart is also given over to cricket. When first approached to manage the current tour to India, family friends say Khan was at first sceptical. Bal Thackeray8217;s Shiv Sena was on the rampage. Khan8217;s mother, the Begum, worried about her son with all the passion of a South Asian mum.

Meanwhile, Khan gave in to persuasion, presumably from none other than his PM. The screenplay seemsto have so far ended happily, with the Shiv Sena withdrawing its threat. Says son Omar, a masters graduate in politics who runs an icecream cafe in Islamabad, 8220;When we received the news about the Shiv Sena taking back its threat, I immediately phoned my grandmother who was very relieved.8221;

In Delhi, the consensus is that with the appointment of the suave and urbane officer and gentleman, Islamabad has stolen a march over India. 8220;The message,8221; says a long-time Pakistan-watcher, 8220;is that we are bloody, intolerant Hindus, who behave in a loutish manner. Shahryar, on the other hand, is bound to make a deep impression on all the civilised people he meets here.8221;

A former foreign secretary puts it this way, 8220;He represents the rational face of Pakistan, one that Nawaz Sharif would like to promote to the outside world, especially after Islamabad8217;s nuclear tests. Shahryar is a cricket enthusiast, but not involved in the skulduggery of cricket politics. Publicly, he has already done remarkably well. WhilePakistan has shown determination to come to India despite the Shiv Sena, we have shown that we don8217;t want to take action, we would rather negotiate with the goons.8221;

Whether or not Wasim Akram and his boys go on to win or lose, Mian Shahryar Khan has already had the last word. One of the first sound-bites he gave on Indian soil will resound long after the game is over: 8220;People in India should appreciate the fact that despite everything we have come here to play,8221;