A fantastic meeting with master blaster of the past

The year was 1996, and in about seven months Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was going to be sacked by her hand-picked President Farooq Leghari on corruption charges.
Little did she know that more devastating news would come two months before she packed her bags at the PMO when in coming September her beloved brother, Murtaza Bhutto, was going to be assassinated outside their family home, 70 Clifton, Karachi, near the main entrance.
The image of a bare-footed prime minister running across the hospital corridors as Murtaza lay dying and then sitting on the ground sobbing as he passed away, is one no one can forget.
The day she was assassinated in Rawalpindi, many of her women supporters and friends were just like her in the past, sitting on the floor in the hospital where she had been brought, and crying their hearts out.
But let us rewind to March 1996, happier times in Lahore at the Gaddafi Stadium, that saw Benazir clad in Pakistani colors with a green kamiz and her trade mark white French chiffon dupatta on her head, beaming and with a huge smile handed over the World Cup trophy to the Sri Lankan captain.
The Pakistani crowd had cheered loudly for the Lankans as they were hugely popular and at the time boasted of some of the friendliest, humblest and best mannered cricketers in the world.
“The Sri Lankan players are perfect gentlemen both off the field and on the field”, Benazir had commented after thoroughly enjoying the last overs.
So this week, several decades later it was a fantastic meeting with the ‘Master Blaster’ of the past, the Sinhalese former cricketer and presently a politician, Sanath Teran Jayasuriya and I told him what Benazir had said about his team.
The occasion was a dinner at the home of the ever popular Indian Deputy High Commissioner, JP Singh who is a new arrival but already has a large number of friends in the capital.
The Indian art mounted on his walls is fascinating, especially “a sitting tribal lady“ by B Prabha, that hypnotizes one with its elongated shapes.
Jayasuriya was in the town as the guest of Pakistan Television where he was being greatly admired as a commentator for the ongoing Pakistan versus Sri Lanka matches back in Sri Lanka.
Completely relaxed in casual jeans and a check shirt, with his shoes at times slipping off he says, “On the field I have faced Imran Khan and some of your best fast bowlers”.
When asked about the Indian bowlers who gave him a tough time he says, “Actually, they really do not have such great fast bowlers like yours in India when I played them”, he said.
The young Indian visa councilor, Janesh who has just married a beautiful Russian girl, after his last posting in Moscow, tells me that Jayasuriya is a big hero in India and unlike here in the sleepy town of Islamabad, back in Indian cities he would soon be surrounded by huge crowds if he stepped out on the streets.
Just then Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akhtar, famous for his deadly bowling skills, and title of the world’s fastest bowler walked in, and exchanged greetings with Jayasuriya.
Always in trouble on and off the field for bad behaviour and endless controversies, he appeared unsmiling and very serious as introductions were being made.
Very unlike his typical image of a huge smile and hands in the air like an airplane when he would zoom around the field when he got an important wicket.
In one game his bowling speed was over 161 MPH. Memorable for cricket fans was when in 1999, the Pindi Express took eight wickets in Calcutta, and when he played his first ball to another of India’s all time hero, Sachin Tendulkar and the ever popular captain Rahul Dravid, and got them out in successive deliveries.
Tendulkar had faced Shoaib Akhtar for the first time and it was the first ball that saw him return to the dressing room. Calcutta saw Shoaib take eight wickets.
Islamabad’s favorite poet Kishwar Naheed had left the party early so when I told her later that Shoaib had also come, she replied, “He is such a horrible personality; I really do not like him. If he had come when I was there, I would have left”.
As Shoaib walked away to greet other guests I asked Jayasuriya whether the Pindi Express had ever given him trouble on the field.
“Oh! Gosh yes, many times. One does get bothered because with his speed you never know where the ball will hit you! You have to keep your eye on the ball because the speed of his bowling and bouncers are amazing”, the Sri Lankan commented.
He also remembered the ‘googlies’ of Abdul Qadir, a magnificent leg spin bowler.
Autographs are a thing of the past as raised eyebrows made very clear. It is now the era of ‘selfies’, something taken for granted, no request needed with no respect for personal space.
“I went to Jaffna after 30 years and there is a remarkable change over there. Politically, things are getting better in Sri Lanka”, says Jayasuriya who is now a young Deputy Minister for Provisional Councils and Regional Development.
When asked about the rowdy crowds when Pakistan was playing earlier in Sri Lanka, the cricket legend says a new trend has now emerged in his country.
“Many of the Muslim Sri Lankans support Pakistan when they are playing. If Pakistan wins then there are clashes outside the stadium with Lankans who naturally support their own team”, he explained.
It is certainly a pity. All spectators should keep religion strictly away from the world’s greatest game.
”Because for many of us cricket is in itself a religion and the cricketers Gods of the pitch!”, remarks a British fan.