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Journalism of Courage
Don’t judge interest in this cricket match from the spare attendance. Every evening, as the hour chimes for the teams to be herded back to the Holiday Inn in an armed convoy, Multan’s residents pour out of their homes and workplaces to catch a glimpse of the flannelled heroes. On both sides of the Grand Trunk Road they congregate, men and women, young and old, mindful of the prescribed security buffer, heedful of the demands of politeness.
On Rudyard Kipling’s ‘‘river of life’’, they wade in tentatively. At all other times, it is not always so orderly. Multan’s patch of the subcontinent’s centuries-old lifeline is a lively stretch chirping with commerce and gaily painted trucks and buses. Each of them is such a work of art that Pakistan’s big vehicles are something of a passion with souvenir hunters. Their intricate and colourful exteriors offset the dusty landscapes so popular with Company painters.
Multan, in fact, was once the end of ‘‘the road of Hindustan’’. In the 16th century the Sarak-I-Azam connected Punjab to Bengal, wending its way through Lahore and Delhi. In later times it was extended up to Peshawar and came to be known as the Grand Trunk Road. Today its traffic stands truncated. Pakistan holds 300 miles, and India 1250.
Pathan versus Pathan
Pakistan’s innings had not even begun, and on the sidelines bargains were being struck. Give us your Pathan, take ours, said some locals. We would never turn down Yasir Hameed’s earnest talent, we returned, but what use have you for Irfan, don’t you have one in every gully?
Oh dear, Javed Miandad will never live down that comment, will he? Before the one-day series, the Pakistan coach had dismissed the 19-year-old’s swing bowling by saying in Pakistan there’s a Pathan in every gully. He’s been backtracking ever since. On the eve of the Multan Test, he cited bowling as the big difference between Saurav Ganguly’s squad and the one that toured in 1989. ‘‘They are no longer dependent on one or two bowlers’’, said he.
Miandad’s reference to gully cricket, however, is interesting. Gullies are the crucibles of Pakistan’s fast bowling talent. Youngsters without access to big grounds rustle up a bat and a makeshift stump and set up their game on bustling streets. Strapped for cash, they use tennis balls taped over many times. It is the extreme effort to extract bounce from this light ball that is believed to be a clue to Pakistan’s extraordinarily large pool of raw pace talent.
Cricket’s anthem
It’s not quite the Trini Posse. Still, the lunch hour in the Multan Cricket Ground came alive with stirring strains from the Hanif Mohammad Enclosure. Multan itself is these days echoing with a mix of Hindi film music and Urdu ghazals. In cabs, in hotel foyers, and here at the stadium, music mixes freely. Now all we await is a joint theme track for this series.
