Raising the Pitch

A section of the crowd pelts stones and various other objects at Indian cricketers after Pakistan, batting first, lose three wickets for just 11 runs in an ODI. The third wicket is that of Javed Miandad who, after being ruled leg before by umpire Feroze Butt, makes an exaggerated appeal against the umpire’s decision. Manoj Prabhakar, who picked all three wickets, is subjected to a great deal of verbal abuse and stone-throwing and eventually a section of the crowd sets fire to the stands. After a short delay, the match is called off

December 21, 1989

day after the above incident, India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth is attacked and has his shirt torn by an irate Pakistani supporter who sneaks in through the heavy security cordon around the India players near their hotel in Karachi.

October 1991

Proposed one-day series in India is called off by the Pakistan Cricket Board after Shiv Sena activists dig up the pitch at Wankhede Stadium. This is pretty much the first of the ‘political’ problems in subcontinental cricket and subsequent attempts to have the tour in 1993 and 1994 were also scuppered on security grounds.

September 1997

Inzamam-ul Haq, fielding in the deep, is needled by an Indian fan with a megaphone. Remarks are made about Inzamam’s family and then about his rotund shape. After some time, Inzamam feels it’s enough and jumps into the stands, grabs hold of the man by his shirt and tries to hand him over him to security personnel. Inzamam then grabs a bat and tries to attack the man again. Is restrained by spectators and finally calmed down enough to let the game carry on. India win and Inzamam banned for a couple of games.

September 30, 1997

India win one-day match by four wickets, but not after serious crowd trouble had forced the teams off the ground for close to an hour

January 6, 1999

A month before the famous Kumble Test, Shiv Sena activists dug up parts of the ground — the actual batting strip was not affected — at New Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla to protest against the tour. Ten days later, Sainiks entered the BCCI office at the Brabourne Stadium and manhandled the Prudential Cup, won in 1983.

February 19 & 20, 1999

The last day of the second Test of the series had to be played out in front of empty stands at the Eden gardens after the crowd started throwing stones and bottles sensing an Indian loss. The trouble had started the previous day when Tendulkar was run out in a bizarre, though legitimate, fashion. On the last day, police simply cleared the ground.

— Shamya Dasgupta