By Syed Mahmood Sharazi
The England cricket teams under the Captaincy of Ben Stokes has come to Pakistan to play a series of three Test matches. The last time the England team visited Pakistan was in 2005 under the Captaincy of Michael Vaughan. After that, he played Pakistan’s home series in the United Arab Emirates. The first test match between the two teams will be played at the Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi from December 1. While the second test match will start from December 9 in Multan and the last test match will start in Karachi on December 17.
A total of 86 Test matches have been played between the two teams, out of which England defeated Pakistan 26 times while Pakistan defeated the English team 21 times. 39 Tests between the two teams ended without any result.
While this competition between the two teams continues in the game, the off-field and on-field conflicts between the two teams have also been making headlines. Recently, when the English team came to Pakistan to play 7 T20 matches. English cricket team player Moeen Ali described the quality of Pakistani food as bad.
Now the English team has brought its own cook for the Test series, who will make the team food made by his own hands so that the players do not get sick after eating Pakistani food or complain somewhere.
If we talk about the disputes between the two teams, then the dispute over the decisions of umpiring, the allegations of match fixing and ball tampering, Pakistan’s referee Idris Baig being beaten by the English players and English captain Mike Gatting’s umpire Shakur Rana Conflict in the Faisalabad Test. In the past, many issues Raises between Pakistan and England Cricket Teams, due to which the cricket relations between the two countries have been strained.
Ahead of the current Test series starting from December 1 2022, we will Highlight the same controversies, what they were and why they happened.
After the Partition if Hindustan the English team visited Pakistan for the first time in 1956. After abducting Pakistani umpire Idris Baig during a match in Peshawar, they took him to their hotel where two buckets of cold water were thrown on him.
Then England captain Donald Carr called the incident a joke, but when the news came to the then President of Pakistan Sikandar Mirza, he orderd to send the English team back, to which the English board apologized profusely. After which the tour of the English team could continue. The players who assaulted the Pakistani umpire were reprimanded on their return to England and captain Donald Carr was stripped of the captaincy for ever.
It is believed that this was the first incident in the history of cricket when a visiting team was ordered to leave the country by the host country’s government. After that, an endless series of disputes between the two countries began.
The second major conflict between the two teams took place when England’s captain Mike Gatting and Pakistani umpire Shakur Rana clashed during the tour of Pakistan. During the second day of the 1987 Test in Faisalabad, England captain Mike Gatting was accused by umpire Shakur Rana of illegally moving a fielder from one place to another.
Mike Gatting insisted he did nothing wrong. He took revenge for the umpire calling himself a ‘cheat’ in such a way that during the match he and Shakur Rana kept pointing at each other, after which Shakur Rana refused to umpire on the third day of test. Due to which the third day’s game could not be played. The fourth day’s play was possible only after Gatting apologized to pakistani umpire.
Then in 1992, when the Pakistan cricket team went on a tour of England after winning the World Cup, the England team could not forget their defeat in World cup and accused the Pakistani bowler of ball tampering.
The reverse swing was new to English cricket when Pakistani fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis used it extensively. His success raised many doubts as England’s bowlers were not able to achieve enough success despite their best efforts for reverse swing. In 1992, the issue of ball-tampering during a match played at Lord’s was in the news.
On the other hand, England batsman Alan Lamb in an interview given to the newspaper Daily Mirror called the Pakistani team cheaters.
The ball tampering dispute between the two teams could not end soon. In 2006, Pakistan became the first team in the nearly 150-year history of Test cricket whose match was forfeited. The incident took place on the fourth day of the Test match at The Oval when umpire Darrell Hair accused Pakistan of ball tampering and penalized Pakistan for five runs. then captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Inzimam-ul-Haq, refused to send the team to the ground after the tea break as a protest.
The umpires decided to forfeit the match, in which England were declared the winners after a few hours. This match also became the first step towards the end of Darrel Hair’s career. It was later revealed that he had offered to resign in exchange for $500,000.
Then the England tour in 2010 left a mark on the Pakistan cricket team that was not easy to get rid of. In 2010, Pakistan cricket faced a scandal when Pakistan team captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were accused of involvement in spot-fixing.
Captain Salman Butt was accused that he had instructed Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif to make no balls on purpose. All three players faced bans and jailed time after the allegations were proven.
Despite all these controversies, the English team has now come to play a Test series in Pakistan after seventeen years, so it can be hoped that this tour will be completed in a peaceful atmosphere and no more controversies will arise.
