The hashtag #ItAllStartedHere that adorns the cream colored partitions of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium says all of it. From 1984 to 2001 — when the Indian authorities banned the Males in Blue from enjoying there – it had been the epicentre of cricket. If World Collection Cricket or the tri-series had been synonyms with the Australian summer time, so had been the multi-national tournaments in Sharjah, performed beneath the title Cricketers Profit Fund Collection (CBFS). For Indians, any point out of Sharjah in a dialog doesn’t finish with out the point out of Javed Miandad’s last-ball six in 1985 or Sachin Tendulkar’s Desert Storm in 1998.
The empty stands, which are actually aged and a throwback to a distinct period, used to drum up such an electrical environment that it made Tony Greig scream on air, “They’re dancing within the aisles in Sharjah,” when Tendulkar was in full movement in 1998. A long time have passed by however the Sharjah Cricket Stadium nonetheless stands intact. With Dubai and Abu Dhabi having fashionable stadiums it isn’t essentially the most wanted nowadays, but it surely nonetheless stays the heartbeat of cricket within the middle-east.
The previous scoreboard has given solution to an digital one, which appears to be the one improve. These hoardings over the canopies which famously used to offer away the subsequent scheduled tri-series within the metropolis are nonetheless round. So is the one-storied stand behind the sight-screen on one finish, the place certainly one of Tendulkar’s sixes off Michael Kasprowicz landed within the closing acquired Greig going, “Ohhhhh that is excessive, what a six! What a six! Method down the bottom, it’s on the roof. It’s bouncing on the roof.”
These had been the glory days of Sharjah. Now, the stadium resembles an previous din that has clearly seen its finest days. Aside from the quite a few images – which don’t have a up to date lively worldwide cricketer — that adorn the partitions, there’s nothing to point how this venue was once a stopover for many groups yearly. Within the case of India and Pakistan, there have additionally been situations the place they’ve performed two sequence in a calendar 12 months, a lot to the joy of the quite a few expats who dwell right here.
“Cricket has been happening in Sharjah for over 50 years now,” Mazhar Khan who’s the final supervisor of the Sharjah Cricket Stadium says. “In 1974, we had been the primary membership to ask groups from abroad with a State Financial institution of India workforce arriving right here in 1975 and PIA in 1976. Then Abdulrahman Bukhatir thought why not invite the worldwide groups of India and Pakistan. They determined to have this profit purse in Sharjah, which began within the Eighties. And that means, retired gamers who had represented India and Pakistan, used to get a handbag of $50,000. That’s the way it began and it continued until 2000,” Mazhar says.
With the tensions boiling over within the stands, the venue has had a behavior of segregating the Indian and Pakistan followers individually to keep away from any incidents. For a very long time it simply had concrete seats, however with time they put in these bucket seats which had been ravaged by Afghanistan and Pakistan followers after they performed a Asia Cup fixture right here in 2018. “The safety division right here, they know that it’s higher to separate them. Particularly while you play Afghanistan, even India or Pakistan, they all the time desire to maintain them apart. So, there aren’t any points amongst them,” Mazhar says.
Since that first ODI between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1984, it has hosted greater than 300 worldwide fixtures (which finds a spot in Guinness world data which additionally contains round 253 ODIs, essentially the most any venue has hosted. In 2001, after the match-fixing saga, the Indian authorities banned its workforce from enjoying within the metropolis, which continues until date. That ban meant, between April 2003 and February 2010, it didn’t host a single worldwide fixture. The drought would solely be ended by Afghanistan, which used the venue as its residence base throughout its preliminary years.
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“In these days, it was simpler to request the Indian and Pakistan boards to come back and play as a result of there was no FTP. However with the quantity of cricket nowadays, it’s not possible. So Sharjah had its personal time. However even now, we’re internet hosting internationals. Final 12 months, the ICC used the venue for the Girls’s T20 World Cup. Earlier than that the IPL occurred right here,” Mazhar says.
Although India has lengthy stopped visiting town, with Dubai being its favoured vacation spot for cricket within the middle-east nowadays, Sharjah has in some way nonetheless managed to carry its relevance. Owned privately, the stadium has a self sustainable mannequin in place the place the venue is rented for matches and even for leisure reveals.
“We’re a privately owned stadium so until we host matches it’s laborious to keep up it. So, that’s why we attempt to preserve the stadium busy with not solely worldwide video games, but in addition permit leisure reveals and company matches to occur. On a median, we play about 225, 30 video games in a 12 months, which incorporates our home season,” says Mazhar.
On Thursday one such sport was underway with eerie silence for firm. No person was dancing within the aisles.
