Published: Aug 31, 2015, 07:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 08, 2016, 12:42 PM (IST)
February 8, 1969. Colin Cowdrey brought his men to a three-Test series in Pakistan amidst turbulent political disturbances. With matches scheduled at Bahawalpur and Lyallpur on consecutive days, it was a rather hectic tour for MCC. It was at Lyallpur that Cowdrey refused to take field — for his side has not taken tea —thus uttering one of the most famous quotes in the sport. Abhishek Mukherjee recalls.
Few things have been as British as cricket, but tea certainly belongs to the elite list. You may go without the egg and the bacon, but it an English morning without the cuppa seems too unreal to comprehend. As Finbow aptly points out in CP Snow’s Death Under Sail (1932), “Drinking the best tea in the world on an empty cricket ground — that, I think, is the final pleasure left to mankind.” Snow had to be an Englishman.
Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge (Colin Cowdrey to lovers of the sport) was the first English cricketer to be given a peerage. He was, after all, the first cricketer to play a hundred Tests. Few men have donned the English blazer so proudly. Somewhat fittingly, Michael Colin Cowdrey is one of the two international cricketers with initials MCC (the other being Michael Conrad ‘Joey’ Carew).
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This was no ordinary tour. MCC started their tour with Ceylon, but news of violence in Pakistan reached them every day. They lay low, and when they eventually reached, they realised that the itinerary had been drawn in haste.
It was evident that Field Marshal Ayub Khan had arranged the itinerary in haste. The three tour matches were played at Bahawalpur, Lyallpur (Faisalabad), and Sahiwal (cities that Peter Oborne referred to as “Ayub’s regional strongholds” in Wounded Tiger).
The motive was obvious: Ayub wanted to regain his hold over the country. He also had a Test scheduled at Dacca, where he was losing popularity at alarming rate. Ayub also knew the rebels would target the Tests (on hindsight, he was correct), so he reduced the Tests to four-day affairs.
English cricketers should not have had a problem with the venues, but the planning was too amateurish: the Bahawalpur match against BCCP XI was supposed to be played till February 7; the Lyallpur match against Central Zone was to start the next day. Google Maps estimates the distance between the cities as 312 km.
The first match went without a major event: BCCP XI declared on 262 for 7; MCC (the man and the team) declared 44 behind; and set to chase 218, MCC were reduced to 83 for 4 before Keith Fletcher and Alan Knott played out time. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, the match lasted for full three days, which meant there was little time for the English cricketers to travel, let alone rest. They had to get up at the crack of dawn, rush to the airport, board a chartered flight, and rush to the ground. They reached an hour-and-a-half late.
Elsewhere, somewhere in the selection committee, Hanif Mohammad was being written off from the Test side. A perfect example was the appointment of Saeed Ahmed as Central Zone captain (though Hanif played the match). The side also included Test cricketers Nasim-ul-Ghani, Mohammad Ilyas, and Farooq Hameed, and a teenager called Wasim Raja. All in all, a strong side.
Saeed waited for Cowdrey to walk out to flip the coin. The crowd grew impatient. The match had already been delayed. But Cowdrey was unflappable: “No English side ever started a game of cricket without first having a cup of tea.”
The crowd waited, as did the Central Zone players, but Cowdrey refused to budge. He would have his tea, that too in leisure. The delay had extended to well over two hours when John Snow bowled the first ball to Hanif.
The match, in itself, was a dreary affair. The hosts batted 86 overs for 198 for 7 before Saeed called it a halt. Basil D’Oliveira led the response, scoring 102 not out as MCC slipped from 146 for 2 to 191 for 6; Cowdrey declared when ‘Dolly’ reached three figures. MCC had levelled Central Zone’s score, but had batted 19 fewer overs.
There was more purpose to Central Zone’s second innings. Hanif and Ilyas added 60, but Saeed left it for too late, asking the tourists to chase down 171. Cowdrey did not take the bait, and he and Roger Prideaux batted out time.
What followed?
– Hanif was replaced by Saeed as captain for the series. The first Test at Lahore was marred by political disturbances, but as always, Cowdrey kept his cool and scored a hundred. He set Pakistan 323 in five hours. Pakistan were reduced to 71 for 4 in 26 overs, but young Majid Khan, supported by Hanif (batting down the order) and his brother Mushtaq, saved the Test.
– The Englishmen went (“had to go to” will probably be a more apt phase, for the choice was not theirs to take) to Dacca despite political turmoil. When the decision was made, Keith Fletcher famously commented: “We were no longer cricketers, it seemed, but ambassadors being paid a tour fee to keep the peace”. They demanded 24×7 police protection and availability of the army if required. These were agreed to. Unfortunately, as Oborne wrote, “these were simple assurances for [BCCP Secretary] Fida Hassan to give, and they were soon to prove just as simple to break.”
But cricket went on. Pakistan were bowled out for 246 and had England on the mat at 130 for 7, but once again, D’Oliveira compiled a magnificent 114 not out to allow England the luxury of a 28-run lead. Saeed’s declaration turned out to be a token one.
– England were in control at Karachi, reaching 502 for 7 on Day Three before a mob of rioters invaded the ground. The English players left straight for the airport, abandoning the Test. Two weeks later, Ayub resigned.
– New Zealand toured Pakistan later that year. Opening batting with his youngest brother, the debutant Sadiq, Hanif scored 22 and 35, helping add 55 and 75 for the opening stand. He never played for Pakistan again.
Brief scores:
Central Zone 198 for 7 decl. (Mohammad Ilyas 55, Afzal Masood 49; Basil D’Oliveira 3 for 9) and 170 for 8 decl. (Hanif Mohammad 50; Bob Cottam 5 for 35) drew with MCC 198 for 6 decl. (Basil D’Oliveira 102*; Nasim-ul-Ghani 3 for 62) and 61 for no loss.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
