Lahore says it with olive branch and spring flowers

That an Indian team has crossed the border for a full tour after 15 years is an event in itself and, given the popularity of the game in these parts, it was an occasion to celebrate. And if anybody knows how to celebrate, Lahorites do; they only need a mere excuse to indulge themselves.

There were only a couple of thousand at the airport to welcome the team but see that in context: oppressive security and reports of lathi-charges on ticket-seekers in Karachi turned many away. And the Indians must have felt the warmth of those who did turn out.

Of course, the crowd was nothing compared to the tens of thousands that had received Imran Khan and his bunch of triumphants after Pakistan’s first Test series victory in India in 1987, or when Imran, again, brought the World Cup home from Australia in 1992. Lahore, the nation’s cultural capital, is also the home of its cricket. Players like Kardar, Fazal, Nazar, Imtiaz and Khan Mohammad who put Pakistan on the world stage in emphatic fashion, fittingly in their maiden series against India in 1952, were all from Lahore.

And the city has attracted famous Karachi people too: Javed Miandad and Saeed Anwar have both settled here, as have Waqar Younis and Mushtaq Ahmed, hailing from smaller towns in the middle of Punjab.

Journalists who accompanied the team remembered the era when Sunil Gavaskar along with his wife and Sandeep Patil dined in a Chinese restaurant here in 1982-83, without the least care about their personal safety. And of cricketers’ wives from both countries going on joint saree-shopping sprees.

Those days are gone — not one Indian cricketer on this tour has brought his wife along, though there is a chance they will be here for the Tests. For the moment, the concern for security and a desire to proclaim the tour as incident-free is taking its toll, and could act as a killjoy.

(The writer is Sports Editor of The Nation, Lahore)