The Asia Cup seems to lack the buzz of a big tournament. As Pakistan takes on Hong Kong in the inaugural match, the stands are empty and there’s silence all around, notes K. C. Vijaya Kumar.
June 22: Stardust lingers in the Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Mumbai to Karachi. Passengers shoot photographs with camera phones and proffer handshakes as M. S. Dhoni and Co. are on their way for the STAR Cricket Asia Cup.
Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport has a stifling security cordon that wraps around the Indian squad. Team analyst Dhananjay frantically searches for his passport and it finally surfaces! A few youngsters in the team stifle their smiles. Stepping out of the airport, the first thing that strikes you is a Tom and Jerry cartoon screened outside a 24-hour McDonalds outlet!
June 23: The day before the inauguration of the Asia Cup. The taxi ride to the National Stadium, about 12 kilometres from the hotel, is smooth. Excuse me, aren’t there any potholes? It’s a query that dogs the media contingent as we zip on Karachi roads. “The language is the same, the culture similar and in the next 15 days we will look around,” Dhoni charms Pakistani journalists.
The Hong Kong team arouses curiosity — a large number of its players, including skipper Tabarak Dar, are from Pakistan.
The return journey to the hotel is like an exercise in India-spotting. Delhi Sweets and Delhi Bakery outlets flash by and the driver, Aslam Shah, points to localities where people with roots in Old Delhi live. The music inside the car is Bollywood. So is the case at the restaurant in the hotel — a band plays the latest hits from Mumbai. Back in the room, you switch the TV on and you get Bollywood hits, ‘Munnabhai’, ‘Rangeela’, ‘Golmaal’, ‘Tashan’…
June 24: Pakistan mauls Hong Kong by 173 runs on a day that lacks the buzz of a big tournament launch. The stands are empty, a handful of fans mutely watch the proceedings. There’s silence all around. Strangely, even the roads leading to the stadium are bereft of any hoardings promoting the on-going Asia Cup. Umar Gul, though, smiles from a few hoardings, but then he is advertising for a bank.
Asia Cup? Perhaps it’s happening in some other planet.
June 25: Suresh Raina and M. S. Dhoni tuck into easy pickings against Hong Kong, each of them scoring centuries. A facile victory for India and Hong Kong is shown the door. The stands? They are still empty.
Meanwhile, the Indian media contingent, predominantly vegetarian except for yours truly, fantasise about good dal and sambhar. After all, the breakfast buffet at the hotel has just one vegetarian option — potatoes apart from the usual cornflakes. The same sautéed potatoes is given different names — ‘oriental potatoes’, ‘fried potatoes’, and then, how about ‘potato lioness’? Hope it doesn’t bite.
June 26: Big match, crowds are back. India defeats Pakistan by six wickets. “You guys won, anyway its part of sport,” the taxi driver says on the way back to the hotel.
The newspapers here do have references to India, but some stereotypes remain. For instance, Kashmir is always referred to as ‘Occupied Kashmir.’ Leading Indian journalists such as Kuldip Nayar pen their thoughts in the edit pages.
The adage ‘Home is where the heart is’ rings clear while reading Mohammed Hanif’s evocative article titled ‘Karachi Calling’. Hanif, who recently wrote ‘Exploding Mangoes’, a book on the late General Zia-ul-Haq, recalls the angst within the family as he, his wife and their 10-year-old son plan to return to Karachi after a 12-year stint in London. His son resists and Hanif traipses past that with a mix of parental authority and logical arguments. His son’s mental block is built upon Karachi’s apparently rising crime graph and, of course, the comforts of being in London. Hanif writes: “I always call myself a Karachiite because that’s where I found love, work and the sea. So if a Karachiite can live in London for more than a decade, surely a Londoni can be a Karachiite.”
June 27: A rest day for the tournament, but thoughts of a languid morning vanish. The Castrol Asian Cricket awards function is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start. Sourav Ganguly wins the Asian Cricketer of the Year award. Dona Ganguly represents him at the function as he is away in London with his ailing father. Ganguly also wins the overall batting award; Gambhir gets the T20 batting honours, while Tendulkar bags the ODI batting award. Yuvraj Singh wins a special award for his six sixers against England in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship in 2007.
Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Umar Gul too bag awards, while Kamran Akmal’s award for fielding is greeted with scepticism considering his recent gaffes with the gloves and his subsequent ouster from the Pakistan squad. Shoaib Malik wins the Pakistan Cricketer of the Year award.
There’s an aura of nostalgia when Hanif Mohammad walks up to receive his Lifetime Achievement award.
June 28: A warm Saturday morning. Asia Cup has entered the business end with the commencement of the semifinal league. It’s India versus Bangladesh later in the day.
Scrambled potatoes at the breakfast buffet seem to wink at us!
On the road you get a sense of déjÀ vu as Suzuki cars, carbon copies of the Maruti 800 and Alto, screech past. The buses and trucks plying here are amazing; they are colourful and ornamented. They remind us of that old ad jingle, “Whenever you see colour think of us”.
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