‘Sledging was bad, eventually we gave it back’

The sledging was very bad. Men like Sarfraz Nawaz and Javed Miandad kept coming at us. They didn’t spare even Sunil Gavaskar who, by then, had established himself as a senior and world class opener in international cricket. Sarfraz was actually intolerable. Javed hammered away at us so much that by the end of the tour, we could hear him chattering in our dreams. It wasn’t as much gaalis as golis. Even we didn’t hold ourselves back in the middle. We gave back in full. Before long, we had discovered a side of us we thought didn’t exist — that was sledging.

THE UMPIRES WERE DICTATORS

It was just too much. Umpire Shakoor Rana walked off the field after an argument and refused to officiate. It took much cajoling, pleading and apologies to bring the man back in the middle and resume cricket. They were not as much umpires as they were dictators. They would not only shoot you down but even chided you if you appealed too often. There was no scope for argument. Their word was law.

ZAHEER SHONE ONLY AT HOME

Zaheer batted very well in the series but he was a direct beneficiary of umpiring largesse. He scored runs by hundreds but favourable umpiring did play its part. You just need to look at the back-to-back series we played in India a year later to get the drift. In India, Zaheer was struggling to get into double figures. Here was a batsman who had caused mayhem in Pakistan — in India, he just couldn’t score runs. His form was so poor that by the third Test, he was sitting out of the team. Forget Kapil Dev, even Roger Binny was proving too much for him.

KAPIL AND ME

Like it was Sachin Tendulkar in 1989 — and possibly Irfan Pathan in an under-19 tournament last year — the 1978-79 tour was notable for the emergence of Kapil Dev. I played a Test and partnered him; and I remember for the next 18 Tests we played together, no opposition team could put on 100 runs for the first wicket against us. It is the kind of feat I remember with relish. The very next Test in which I was not played and somebody else partnered Kapil, the rival openers were able to put up a three-figure stand.

SECURITY TOOK FUN OUT OF THE TOUR

We were touring Pakistan after 26 years. We had no idea what the place was like, how the opposition played. There was little feedback from cricketers of the past, and quite a few of us were not even born when the 1954-55 tour took place. Of course the hype is enormous today but even then it was a very, very big tour.

The hospitality was very warm but we were not able to enjoy it. I remember four of us went to Anarkali market in Lahore one day and there were 10 gun-toting policemen with us. Imagine us shopping with gunmen around us. We didn’t look like guests — rather, we appeared to have been arrested for some crime. Everyone was looking at us. It wasn’t enjoyable at all. We couldn’t meet friends, couldn’t go to restaurants and there was no sightseeing. It wasn’t much fun really.

(Cricket News)