Today we bring you another depressing tale of crowd misbehaviour in Pakistan. This time, it was the turn of Sachin Tendulkar's Indian team at Karachi, which was at the receiving end.

When Tendulkar and his men landed at the Qaid-e-Azam airport in Karachi in 1997 for the Wills Challenge Cup to be played in Pakistan, there was a 1,000-strong security force at the airport to protect them. An elaborate wall of security was provided. The Pakistan Cricket Board had assured adequate security.

September 30, 1997. The Commissioner of Police in Karachi had said that over 8,000 Rangers had been deployed to guard the main roads leading to the National Stadium in Karachi. The cops had instructed that spectators were not allowed to take in cameras, water bottles and eatables inside the stadium.

Somehow, the troublesome elements were able to get into the stadium. Left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni was the first target. Soon, it was the turn of Debashish Mohanty, Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kambli and finally Sourav Ganguly,

When Ganguly was hit by a stone, skipper Sachin decided enough was enough and decided to take his players off the field Match referee Ranjan Madugalle too was upset over the incidents of stone-throwing and agreed with Tendulkar that the players were not safe on the field and that the players were right in coming off the field. The Pakistani team, however, differed with this view and quite naturally blamed the Indians for the walk-out.

Tendulkar was to say later that, "The incidents might have been minor but I did not want my men to get injured."

The Police Commissioner put more men in the stands to check crowd menace and appealed for calm.

The irony was that the stone-throwing incidents actually affected Pakistan with the stoppage resulting in loss of 16 deliveries to them towards the end of their innings when they could have gone in for big hits.

There was crowd disturbance on three occasions which led to reduction in the game by three overs.

Skipper Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi and Ejaz Ahmed were followed by Inzamamul Haq and young Saleem Elahi in another fine partnership. At 176 for three, play was suspended for seven minutes when a big stone was hurled on the ground by a spectator.

There were two other occasions of stone-throwing, besides minor instances of crowd misbehaviour. In all, 19 minutes of play was lost because of spectator disturbance. The second disturbance took place when the score was 210 for four and the third at 238 for four. How some persons managed to bring stones into the stadium despite tight security and frisking was a mystery. Inzamamul Haq and Moin Khan were in fact deprived of three overs at the end when they were well set and appeared to take Pakistan to near the 300 mark. When the Indians left the field, after another stone-throwing incident, play was reduced to 47 overs a side and India had to make 266 for a win.

Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar gave India a blistering start, plundering runs against the bowling of Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed. Ganguly reached his 50 off just 41 balls in 65 minutes. Tendulkar was dismissed at 91. Vinod Kambli, who was dropped by Moin Khan twice off Saqlain Mushtaq, put on 98 runs when Ganguly was out for 89 off 96 deliveries (the innings later got him the Man of the Match award). Though India slumped to 195 for five in the 36th over, Robin Singh and wicketkeeper Saba Karim, had a good partnership but Waqar Younis brought Pakistan back into the game with a wicket and giving away only two runs in the penultimate.

India was left with the task of getting eight runs in the last over but it had to score off the tricky and wily customer Saqlain Mushtaq, who had saved Pakistan in several such situations in the past.

Rajesh Chauhan clubbed Saqlain's first delivery for a six, and India went on to win the game.

A large section of the crowd actually enjoyed the Indians' strokeplay but the crowd was stunned into silence when Rajesh Chauhan batted superbly at the end. The crowd went silent but dispersed peacefully.

Srikkanth said later that "the most disturbing thing which I noticed was the unruly behaviour of the crowds, especially in Karachi. I had said earlier that when crowds misbehave and pelt missiles at the players, the game loses its charm. From a player's point of view, it is very, very upsetting as he is there to do his job, whether it is batting, bowling or fielding. ...Provocation like this leads to nasty incidents such as the Inzamam-ul-Haq affair in Canada where he reportedly took a bat to assault a spectator who had been insulting him.....It is to Tendulkar's credit that he agreed to continue with the game after some time."

India won this game to level the series at 1-1.

R Rangaraj

Back to Index