Ahead of India-Pakistan cricket final, remembering the historic 1979 Test series
Early December 1979, late afternoon. The Taj Mansingh Hotel lobby should have been seen to be believed. Screaming women of all ages had laid siege to the place with the hapless hotel staff unable to bring the proceedings under control. Their focus of attention stood quietly on one side of the lobby - outside the Khazana showroom.
He had drop-dead gorgeous looks - Adonis in person. Long hair, athletic build, twinkle in his eyes, an incessant smile – not contrived, mind you! And showing impeccable patience in signing autographs, posing for photographs, doing chit-chat.
Imran Khan didn’t seem flustered – happened to him all the time!
His teammates stood in the centre of the lobby, bemused by the goings-on. They weren’t inconsequential men – far from it; Asif Iqbal – the captain, Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Raja, Majid Khan, Mudazzar Nazar, Abdul Qadir and others. Of course, they also got a fair share of autograph-seekers, but most such seekers wouldn’t have been able to differentiate a Sadiq (Mohammad) from a Sikandar (Bhakt).
The frenzy was solely reserved for their colleague over yonder who out-scored them in the looks and sexiness department.
Hell! One girl and her mother even asked me for an autograph. I had gone for an interview to the hotel and got caught up in the melee. My bandhgala and moustache, and their ignorance of current affairs, misled them to believe that I also wielded the bat across the border.
My embarrassing protestations had no impact and I had no choice, but to walk away.
Such was the craze in India for the Pakistani cricket team when they came visiting our country in 1979-80 for a six-Test series. They were visiting India after a gap of 18 years and a whole new generation of Indians were being exposed to them for the first time. They had last played in India in 1960-61.
A year before, in 1978, India had toured Pakistan. This was a momentous breakthrough in cricketing relations, given the fact that there was no contact for 16 years for various reasons, including the wars of 1965 and 1971. Not only did it create immense excitement in India and Pakistan, but the international press also evinced a keen interest.
Many foreign correspondents were present at the Lahore airport when the Indian squad arrived. Hundreds of Pakistani cricket fans also turned up to greet the Indians and followed them all the way to their hotel.
The Indian squad was led by Bedi. Gavaskar, Viswanath, Vengsarkar, Amarnath, Kapil Dev, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan and others comprised the Indian team. Against such a formidable Indian team, the Pakistan team faced a quandary. This was the era of Kerry Packer and his World Series Cricket (WSC).
The players who had signed up to play in the WSC had been banned - Mushtaq Mohammad, Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas and Imran Khan. Conscious of the fact that the Indian squad was just too strong for Pakistan, Pakistan allowed the return of the banned players.
The series was initially played in a sportsman-like manner, but things soon went south. Some images: Amarnath being carried away on a stretcher, hit by a vicious Imran Khan bouncer; Majid getting angry with Kapil for his leg-side deliveries, pulling out the leg stump and gesturing that it should be placed way down the leg side; Sarfraz and Miandad sledging the Indian batsmen in Punjabi; Sarfraz’s deliveries being out of reach of the batsmen - not being called "wide" by the umpire – resulting in Bedi calling back his batsmen and the 3rd ODI being awarded to Pakistan.
Pakistan totally outplayed India, and won the three-Test match series 2-0. Pakistan’s last victory had come in 1952. India were unable to bowl Pakistan out even once in the Tests. In the 3 ODIs series, Pakistan won 2-1.
So, when the Pakistani team came to India, the Indian curiosity was at its peak. The larger-than-life persona of many Pakistani players was contributed in no small measure by the Kerry Packer circus – the floodlights, the colourful attire, the elaborate media coverage, the money.
This was more so because not a single Indian played in the WSC. The "sex symbol" persona that Imran brought to India in 1979, was a product not of his looks alone, but of the hype that surrounded the Packer show. The awe was further heightened when Gavaskar made a stunning statement that Pakistan would smash the Indians to a pulp. The statement was printed on the cover page of The Illustrated Weekly of India. The cover also featured Runa Laila and Asif Iqbal, the Pakistan captain. The magazine ran a detailed story on the Pakistani team members, highlighting their skills honed in English county cricket and the WSC.
The message was clear – the Pakistanis were more talented (and elegant) cricketers. The Indian press went to town singing their hosannas. Sportsweek named the Pakistani side "Asif's Super 16". "Majestic Majid" was the name they coined for Majid. To be fair, he did look majestic.
With such a hype, it was natural that the visitors attracted all the limelight. They received rave reviews and were photographed at parties with Bollywood celebrities. T-shirts emblazoned with "Big Boys Play at Night" were worn by some players – a reference to WSC. It appeared that the Indian players stood no chance.
But the Indians did get their chance on the field and by the time the two teams went to Kolkata to play the last of the six Tests, the home team had taken an unbeatable 2-0 lead. Gavaskar’s statement turned out to be a masterstroke in convincing the opposition that the Indian tour would be a walk in the park, and that they could replicate the thrashing they had given India in the earlier tour. Gavaskar’s was a disarming statement that lulled the Pakistanis to complacency. As it turned out, the big boys played during the day.
There are many abiding memories of the on-field happenings – Zaheer Abbas losing form completely and being dropped in the last Test; Majid, Asif, Imran and Bari having a poor series; coming of age of Kapil Dev as an all-rounder; Miandad and Wasim Raja doing well with the bat; Sikandar Bakht doing very well in the bowling department; emergence of Vengsarkar as a batsman of international class; the Indian umpiring being questioned; accusations of doctoring of pitch.
Asif Iqbal was accused of selling the series to India and the accusation put paid to his career. His name cropped up in connection with corruption in the game. Nothing was proven, but a question mark lingered. This mark became bigger over the years as he became an integral part of the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) in Sharjah as its director of cricket.
Much the same Pakistan side that had totally outplayed India at home a year earlier, and won the series 2-0, went down by the same margin.
So, what happened in one year? The most prominent reason for India's ascendancy was the development as an opening bowler of Kapil Dev who, with 32 wickets, was the leading wicket-taker of the series for either side. And with an abundant infusion of new players, India were stronger than 12 months earlier, much of the added strength coming from greater mobility in the field and superior catching. Although his approach was cautious, Gavaskar marshalled his forces well.
With Pakistan, it was the opposite. The Pakistanis toured without Sarfraz Nawaz, their main wicket-taker against India in the previous series. There was also a very apparent division of loyalties within the party. Discipline was low, with the players distracted by commercial and social interests. Pakistan could not come to terms with its shortcomings.
The atmosphere on the field had been soured and standards of conduct had dropped to deplorable levels.
Speaking at the inaugural Tiger Pataudi Memorial Lecture in 2012, Imran recalled an anecdote from their 1979-80 tour: “Zaheer Abbas had been in terrific form in the previous series in 1978-79… But he failed in the first three Tests because of the pressure and his bad form… I was sharing the room with Zaheer and he blamed it on various factors… Finally, one day he said, 'I know the reason, it’s black magic!' He was dropped for the next Test…”
Off the field, however, the Pakistani side were showered with confetti. They were treated like superstars by Bollywood, by politicians, by businessmen, by the man on the street. And by journalists. They were shadowed by paparazzi, sought out not only by prominent cricket journalists, but also by "lifestyle" columnists. They were seen in parties with assorted movie stars and starlets.
Imran and Zeenat Aman began dating each other and were seen together at many places. Amitabh, Dilip Kumar, Parmeshwar Godrej and many others hosted lavish parties for them.
In Kolkata, the visitors partied with the glitterati of the city every night. A story, probably apocryphal, humorously reported that the city was in danger of running out of biryani!Sometimes the obsession takes a bizarre turn. A college batchmate, who is a spitting image of Zaheer Abbas, was enjoying an evening at one of the tony clubs at Lutyens' Delhi. Some club members walked up to him and expressed their admiration for his cricketing abilities. He laughed and admitted that though there was a resemblance, he was not Zaheer. But they would have none of it. The friend, for a lark, decided to play along. But things soon turned serious. More members joined and plied him with drinks and snacks. By now, there was no turning back. He had to live the role. Even now, when he visits the club during his Delhi visits, he continues to be Zaheer and members shower adulation and affection on him!
George Orwell had famously said that "serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting".
That may well apply to the India-Pakistan cricket contests given our shared history and mutual hostility. But it is equally true that, after the day’s play is over and the stadium empties out, it brings players and people of the two countries together.
The tremendous, and spontaneous, outpouring of support by Indians for Sarfraz Ahmed, the captain of the Pakistani cricket team, for being trolled for his lack of English at the press conference after winning the semi-finals of the current ICC Champions Trophy is a case in point. Some of the words of support offered by Indians - English language is not a benchmark of genius; as a sportsman, he played well for his nation; even Messi, Ronaldo and Putin can’t speak English; he plays better than cricketers of English-speaking nations; interviews should be conducted in Hindi for English-speaking people.
And Pakistanis have appreciated it.
The India-Pakistan final on Sunday promises to be a humdinger of a match. No quarter will be given nor asked. Each team’s armory will be marshalled to the best possible extent by its captain. And while I along with fellow 1.3 billion Indians and the Indian diaspora will be rooting for India, eventually the game of cricket will be the winner!