Opinion A forgotten cricketing bond between India and Pakistan

The first major step back was after the terror attack on Mumbai in November 2008, which resulted in 178 fatalities. Just months earlier, in the inaugural season of the IPL (Indian Premier League), a number of Pakistani cricketers had been warmly received by their franchise fans across the length and breadth of India. The horrors of 26/11, however, meant that they would never again be seen in the world’s most popular T20 franchise league. The last time India and Pakistan met in a Test match was at Bengaluru in December 2007.

But it was the combined administrative and financial clout of the Indian and Pakistani cricket boards in 1987 — now at loggerheads — and 1996 (plus Sri Lanka that year) that pulled the rug from under the feet of the “Big Two” of world cricket: England and Australia. After hosting the first three World Cups in England (1975, 1979, 1983), the power centre had moved to the sub-continent, and subsequently, exclusively to India.

That the Indian and Pakistan cricket boards joined hands to host the 1987 (Reliance) World Cup and the 1996 (Wills) World Cup, with Sri Lanka as well, was a triumph of cricket diplomacy.

There was another twist in 1996. On the eve of the World Cup, Sri Lankan capital Colombo, which was to host many matches, was hit by a massive bomb blast, which killed over 80 people. This spooked the Australian and West Indian teams, who boycotted their matches in Colombo and forfeited their points.

As a counter and to show that the Sri Lankan capital was safe, the PILCOM (Pak-Indo-Lanka Joint Management Committee) organised a match in Colombo against the hosts. But the team was no ordinary one. It was a joint India-Pakistan team (named Wills XI after the sponsors) captained by India’s Mohammad Azharuddin and including Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Akram. It contained six Pakistanis and five Indians, with Anil Kumble winning the Man of the Match award for his match-winning spell of 4 for 12.

The team was met with great enthusiasm not only by Sri Lankan fans who warmly appreciated the gesture of South Asian solidarity, but also by the cricket fraternities of both India and Pakistan.

But there was a similar match 70 years earlier in pre-Partition India, staged at the Bombay Gymkhana, between the MCC, which toured India in the 1926-27 season, and “Hindus and Muslims”, which ended in a draw in December 1926.

While motley English teams had been touring India since 1889-90, this was the first which had an official stamp, MCC being the custodians of the game in England and a huge voice in world cricket too. Captained by Arthur Gilligan, the idea behind the tour was to gauge India’s eligibility for Test status, which was duly granted in 1929 (India played its first Test match at Lord’s in 1932).

The joint team had seven Hindus and four Muslims, and was captained by Palwankar Vithal, the brother of the celebrated left-arm spinner Palwankar Baloo, who had been the lone bright spot with 100 wickets on the disastrous 1911 All-India tour of England. The failure of that 1911 team set back by many years India’s chances of gaining official Test status, but Baloo’s inclusion was remarkable in that he was a Dalit and one of the early heroes of Babasaheb Ambedkar. His younger brother Vithal (one of four cricket-playing siblings) captaining the joint team against the MCC was another sign that Indian cricket was able to rise above caste and religious considerations.

There had been two earlier matches played by the combined Hindus and Muslims team, in 1917 and 1922, both at the Bombay Gymkhana and both against a joint Europeans and Parsis team, the latter being the first community to take to cricket in India. But neither was as high-profile as the 1926 match.

Long before the IPL captured the imagination of Indian cricket fans, it was the cricket tournament held in Bombay between 1892-93 to 1945-46 that had a huge following.

What was unusual about this tournament, which grew from a match-up between the Europeans and the Parsis to the Pentangular with five teams competing, was that it was fought between the various religious communities of India — Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Europeans and the Rest (consisting of Indian Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and the occasional Jew). Such tournaments on religious grounds were also held in Sind and Lahore, pre-Partition. But it was the “Bombay Tournament” which had the biggest names and drew huge crowds first at the Bombay Gymkhana and then at the Brabourne Stadium from the late 1930s.

It was this high-profile tournament that attracted the attention and ire of Mahatma Gandhi, who led a campaign for its abolishment as he felt a sporting event held on communal grounds sent the wrong signals to the British Raj when he had launched his Quit India movement.

Though his campaign was ultimately successful, players from both sides and spectators too always attested to the fact that there was never any ill-feeling between the players and the fans on opposing sides. If anything, it brought the communities closer together. Such a sporting event has never been staged before or after.

The writer’s latest book, What If…? Indian Cricket’s Counter-Factual History was released last month