Book review 'White On Green' : Unravelling the enigma that is Pakistani cricket

Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Fazal Mahmood, Intikhab Alam, the Mohammed brothers, Asif Iqbal, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzmam-ul Haq, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul Haq, Younus Khan... These are just a handful of names well-known to any follower of cricket in Pakistan and elsewhere. But there are probably ten times the number of unknowns, those making a mark in terms of being era or area-specific, who sparkled for one reason or the other but never made it to the ranks of the truly recognised.

Thus, there is the brilliant party-loving, Rolex-distributing left-arm spinner in Prince Aslam, Master Aziz, who could have been better known to Indians of a certain vintage as the father of the brilliant all-rounder Salim Durrani, Aftab Gul, probably the only Test cricketer to get a debut while out on bail for criminal charges, Khalid “Billy” Ibadulla, handed a debut years after his best days and promptly becoming the first Pakistani to hit a hundred in his first Test or even Duncan Sharpe, Pakistan’s first and only Anglo-Indian Test cricketer.

It is evident in just this little collage of memories that the story of cricket in Pakistan is as fascinating as it is torturous, At varying times of the country’s troubled history, their teams have thrilled and elated, frustrated and under-performed, played cricket that swung from dazzling heights to abysmal lows. And very much like in India, the reasons for this astounding inconsistency are manifold, reflecting the disparate composition of the nation and its constituents.

And in “White On Green”, their ode to the sport across India’s western border, Richard Heller and Peter Oborne have delved long and delved deep to pen down a narrative that is not linear in the telling but in the words of the authors, “(we have) presented a series of characters or episodes that seemed to us to provide some kind of dramatic connection to Pakistani cricket”.

They go on to add, “Cricket does not unite Pakistan but it gives millions of Pakistanis some which they all care about and, so it follows, a common repository for their emotions. For that reason we came to see cricket as a bridge in understanding the collective subconscious in Pakistan. The drama and turbulence of Pakistan cricket and echoes of the drama and turbulence of the nation’s history,’ the authors add before launching the reader into a set of meticulously recreated instances, incidents or organisational agendas.

In their repeated forays into Pakistan, sometimes to chase down trails long gone cold, or to persuade reluctant sources to talk on the record, the authors occasionally ran into men of power and influence who strove to give the sport a direction and sustainable platform, men like the affable Shahryar Khan, cousin to Indian’s youngest Test captain Tiger Pataudi, former president Pervez Musharraf, and Tauqir Zia, who Musharraf hand-picked to lead the Pakistan Cricket Board and give it a semblance of sanity.

But for both Heller and Oborne, one of the highlights of the book was getting hold of Abdul Qadeer Khan, better known to the world as the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, who was in one of his many avatars also a devoted follower of cricket and whose team, Khan research laboratories, employed many well-known cricketers.

The interview, the first in a decade, was given to Lahore-based historian and journalist Najum Latif and the authors have delved at length into the wide-ranging interaction with the controversial scientist, whose claim to fame on a sporting field is sponsoring a number of high-profile cricketers including Shoaib Akhtar besides backing the KRL team that included current Test skipper Misbah-ul Haq, one of Pakistan’s all-time scorers.

Another rarely-known area in the orthodox nation is women’s cricket, which Heller and Oborne examine in some detail including the remarkable story of the Khan sisters of Karachi, who returned home from England to brave the odds and launch their country’s first ever women’s international team, ignoring the threats of fundamentalists.

Thus, for those looking to understand the frustrating enigma that is Pakistani cricket, to those seeking to revive and refresh memories of a nation that produces brilliant cricketers as easily as jamun fruit drop off the trees in a Delhi summer, this will provide plenty to ponder and mull over. After all, very little separates the culture and characteristics on either side of the western border and the tale in many ways will be a familiar one. An intriguing read.