Good old days of Indo-Pak rivalry in UAE
dubai — For old-timers like me, an India-Pakistan cricket match in the UAE was essentially a Friday affair. And inevitably at the Sharjah Stadium.
Times, of course, have changed. After 12 long years, the teams representing two biggest cricketcrazy nations are once again set to clash in the UAE, but this time on a Wednesday and at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Not that that is expected to take away even a sliver of the on-field rivalry between the sub-continental neighbours.
Known as the Ring of Fire, the stadium will host Team India for the first time since the first ODI it hosted between Pakistan and Australia in 2009.
The first UAE cricket tournament I covered was the Sharjah Cup in 1988, but that was devoid of the charm of an India-Pakistan clash. The most exciting time for me, however, was in 1994 when India decided to end their threeyear absence from Sharjah to play in the Pepsi Austral-Asia Cup, which Pakistan went on to win.
A large number of Indian journalists seemed keener to write about a hospitality box owned by an Indian fugitive than write about the happenings on the 22yard strip.
Those were the good old days when there were no barriers between journalists and the players, with a solitary railing separating the players’ dressing room from the media box.
Players used to regularly mingle with scribes and freely exchange news and views.
It wasn’t like now when we get a token media briefing and have to scan the players’ social media feeds to know what they really have to say. Access to players was far easier then. In April 1999, three hours before Pakistan was to take on India for a title clash at the Sharjah Stadium, I was sitting with Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram in his hotel room.
He was running a high fever. The-then Pakistan team doctor Dan Kiesel gave him an injection to bring down his body temperature. Although he wasn’t in ideal condition to play the final, that match against India was barely three months before the 1999 World Cup in England, and Wasim believed in leading from the front.
His late wife Huma, who was a rock-solid support for him, told me that he had to play. And he did. He not only played but rocked India in the first over by taking two wickets for nought to set the stage for a Pakistan victory.
That win once again sent a disappointed Gurwinder Singh, nicknamed ‘Puppy Singh’, home without distributing sweets from his restaurant. Puppy Singh was a regular at India-Pakistan cricket matches and would come to the Sharjah Stadium with sweets packed in his car boot, ready to be distributed if India won. Sadly for him, he got to distribute them less than he would have loved as Pakistan put it across India more often than the other way round.
But Puppy Singh would open the doors of his restaurant in Bur Dubai for cricket fans from both the countries to watch the matches live on TV. Things may have changed on the ground and around the dressing rooms, but Puppy Singh is the same. “I have already made over 200 pieces of ladoos (Indian sweets) for distribution after India’s win over Pakistan on Wednesday,” he told me on Tuesday.
And added that his restaurant in Bur Dubai is ready to welcome those who didn’t get tickets and would like to enjoy watching the match live on TV.
Some things, like the India-Pak cricket rivalry, never change – and shouldn’t either.