India vs Pakistan is cricket’s greatest series, much bigger than the Ashes

Historically, the Ashes is regarded as cricket’s showpiece series.

By Faisal Caesar

Historically, the Ashes is regarded as cricket’s showpiece series. Yet, the significance of the Ashes has waned in recent times. The Asian cricket playing countries, in particular, believes it does not deserve the billing it enjoyed in the bygone past as a contest between two talented sides. From 1989 to 2005, Australia took the Englishmen to the cleaners. But things changed in 2005. After almost 18 years, England regained the Ashes and since then it hasn’t been one-sided.

The diminishing value of Ashes coincided with the increasing worth of India and Pakistan as cricketing forces. The two sides boasted some of the most talented cricketers and when the two teams met on the field of play, memories of their tragic past and the wars they fought along the border they shared added a sharp needle to the contests. Players on both sides came under the kind of pressure they never felt playing against any other side and as a result the two teams unfolded some of the most memorable Tests and ODIs in the history of the game. This was the single biggest difference in the India-Pakistan contests compared to Australia-England; they were hotly contested.

Inzamam-ul Haq’s Pakistan was annihilated in Australia. Inzi came to India with one of the weakest Pakistan teams ever to tour India. But he and his men raised the bar when it counted most, making cricket pundits believe that an Indo-Pak clash will always transcend the limits of tensions and enthusiasm.

I hardly found the Ashes interesting during my school and college days; for me, it was the riveting India-Pakistan contests. Sadly, the there wasn’t any Indo-Pak Test clash for a major part of the 90s because of political disputes between the two neighbours. Cricket became a casualty. The world missed epic clashes between bat and ball… Sachin Tendulkar against the might of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Surely, Waqar bouncing Tendulkar would have been a more fascinating sight than Shane Warne teasing the spineless English team of the ’90s.

The Indo-Pak Test series got going again in 1999 and turned out to be one of the finest series of the ’90s. Memories of that series are still fresh … Saqlain Mushtaq’s doosra that baffled the Indian team through out the series…Tendulkar’s epic defiance at Chennai…the Chennai crowd’s standing ovation to the Pakistan team after a nerve-jangling finish… Anil Kumble’s 10 wickets haul at the Kotla…Shoaib Akhtar putting the vociferous Kolkata crowd to a silence after castling Tendulkar for a first ball naught.

Then followed another five-year break. The two giants resumed play again in 2004 and continued till 2007. Virender Sehwag’s triple ton at the Multan Test in 2004, Abdur Razzaq and Kamran Akmal’s heroics in the drawn Test at Mohali in 2005, Younis Khan’s 267 in the Bengaluru Test in 2005, Tendulkar’s 141 in the Rawalpindi ODI in 2004, Mohamamad Asif slicing the cream of the Indian batting line-up at the Karachi Test in 2006 and Irfan Pathan’s hat-trick in the very first over of the Karachi Test in 2006 are moments which are a part of cricket’s folklore. Many records were re-written and many moments of glory essayed.

Nothing matches an Indo-Pak battle. Whenever these two teams clash, players of the two sides and their supporters experience a rare adrenalin-rush. The tension is immense and one does not experience dull moments in play. It’s hard to predict the outcome of an Indo-Pak clash. Sadly, since 2007 no Test series or an ODI series took place between these two amazing cricketing nations.

The Australians and the Englishmen never had interruptions in their epic battle for the Ashes. The Ashes remains the most enduring, if not the most riveting, rivalry. Yes, the epic Indo-Pak on-field encounters are much bigger than the Ashes.

(Faisal Caesar is a doctor by profession whose dream of becoming a cricketer remained a dream. But his passion is very much alive and he translates that passion in writing about the game)