My Life with Cricket-17

In April-May 1988, Pakistan was to tour the West Indies after many years. The last series between the two teams, played in Pakistan, was a 1-1 draw that included an ignominious defeat for the West Indies when they were bowled out for 53! Knowing Viv Richards’ penchant for a vendetta, this was billed as a huge series, even called as the unofficial test cricket championship.

For whatever reason, Pakistan’s late President General Zi-ul-Haq, called on the retired former captain Imran Khan, to lead the team. Imran Khan had not played any competitive cricket since the World cup semifinal loss to Australia in Oct 1987, yet he promptly came out of retirement and accepted the captaincy. This started a period of 4 years, in which Imran Khan played only in series which he thought were worth his salt. For instance, later that year in winter, he did not play against Australia who toured Pakistan for a test series, a series that Pakistan easily won. In 1990, he did not play against New Zealand, saying he was not inspired to play against a weak team. Pakistan won it 3-0.

Imran Khan, as the media reported, would stay in London for most of the year and fly down to lead Pakistan. Despite this, in most of the series he participated, he would be the man of the series. In his last years, he would average above 50 as a batsman and lower than 20 as a bowler. He remained a lazy fielder though. I remember once Kapil Dev stole a second when the ball went towards Imran Khan, who had assumed it was a single. The visual of such a highly reputed player rushing at the last moment to cover his tardiness is unforgettable. He was not the captain though.

Coming back to the Pakistan’s tour of the West Indies, a little thunder went out of the first test match when Viv Richards pulled out due to injury. In his absence, Gordon Greenridge captained the West Indies, and the result was disastrous for the West Indies. Pakistan won after Imran Khan took 11 wickets in the match and Javed Miandad scored a hundred.

A leader in cricket is overhyped, I used to believe, However, this series shattered this belief. Cricket match and series is essentially a tussle between big players. Imran Khan Vs Viv Richards became Imran Khan Vs Gordon Greenidge in the first test match. It was a considerably inferior contest of personalities; Imran Khan blew the West Indies away. No disrespect to Greenidge though.

In the second test match of the series, Viv Richards promptly returned, scored a hundred in the second innings, and Pakistan narrowly avoided defeat, helped by another Javed Miandad hundred.

The final test, which the West indies needed to win to square the series and maintain the unbeaten record, was mired in umpiring controversy. With 60 over runs to play, Pakistan needed 2 wickets to win but a dogged resistance by Winston Benjamin aided by dubious umpiring helped the West Indies to get over the line. In the end however, the result was a fair reflection of the state of the teams.

As an Indian cricket fan, I was jealous of the Pakistan team, who had beaten West Indies in an away test. For India, it seemed an impossible task. It was difficult for England and Australia too. England were blackwashed twice, and Australia were in a rut. Therefore, Pakistan had nearly pulled off a miracle.

In the ODIs, however, the West Indies duly hammered Pakistan 5-0. Though I recall Ramiz Raja scored two hundreds.

A few months later, West Indies beat England by 4-0 in the English summer that saw England changing 4 captains in 5 tests. After 3 tests, it got so worse for England that Chris Cowdrey, son of Colin Cowdrey, out of nowhere, was put in charge. England lost heavily as usual and Cowdrey never played again. Cowdrey was so unknown that he was stopped by the stadium security.  Another anecdote goes like this - when Cowdrey and Viv Richards came out for toss and Cowdrey started reading the England team, Richards said in his calypso swag, “play whomever you want maan, ain't gonna make any difference.”

At that time, the West Indies were still the undisputed kings of the cricket. Although after the retirement of Clive Lloyd and the subsequent retirement of Michael holding and Joel garner, it seemed that they would weaken and other teams will catch up, however, Clive Lloyd was replaced by Richards as captain, Holding and Garner were replaced by Ambrose and Bishop, so it hardly mattered to the West Indies in terms of the strength. The replacements proved worthy later that year when the West Indies easily defeated Australia by a margin of 3-1.

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