A new Test center was born without any fanfare when Chandigarh joined the Test map of the cricket world amid tight security. There was no pump no pageantry. The sense of occasion was understated as Sector 16 Stadium became the proud new host

What Chandigarh ted to achieve and ‘ultimately did in the Test was proficiency in the matter of conducting big cricket. The players were happy the visiting media men had no problems in getting their passes and there were tickets aplenty for administrators of the Board.

The event was carried out with precision and the only ones who seemed to nurse a grouse were the telecom men who thought the famous Punjabi hospitality did not extend to them. All others seemed to be drowned by that very hospitality. In fact the press box used to get very spirited in the afternoons when the brewers sent their Compliments there much to the annoyance Of those who prefer to get through the day’s work before imbibing.

If there were only a few thousand spectators on three of the four days of the Test the organizers were hardly to blame The fear of terrorism alone could have kept many away form a match that India was always likely to win given the expert under preparation of the wicket by former Test opening batsman Vijay Mehra.

It is the fear of terrorism that makes life somewhat drab in Le Corbusier’s city of geometrical sectors. It is this fear that tends to put people off from undertaking anything other than their daily chores. Yet gunfire was the last thing the cricketer’s of the visitors heard The sound is rather more common in another famous Test center across the border Karachi.

Excessive: The Test passed off peacefully as it was bound to considering the excessive show of security. It appears that the best way to protect any place where the public may gather is to post several thousand cops and members of such other forces around that place. Their very presence would put off everyone including the terrorists.

The security angle was an obsession. But precautions had to be taken lest there be a post-mortem. Still it was not easy to explain the need for gun-toting security men stalking the corridors of the floors on which the teams and others connected with the game stayed India toured Colombo at the height of the tensions in 1985 Neither a gun for a metal detector hand-held or a doming doorways was seen on the 45-day tour. The security was looked after quietly unobtrusively by security men posted in the room at the passage to the floor on which the Indian team stayed in Taj Lanka. No unauthorized person was allowed on the floor.

Autograph hunters had a field day in the corridors of Hotel Shivalik View which ‘was said to have been “secured” for the use of the teams. The height of absurdity was to be frisked while entering Kapil Dev’s room for the interview that was published in The Sport star last week if this correspondent ‘was a suspect how could he in the first place be residing on the same floor as the team?

The one point in favor of the security men was that they made¢ no exception with regard to frisking at the gate to the stadium. Anyone carrying any object had to go through the process of having it examined at the gate. It did not matter in the beast if such persons arrived in the cars of high officials.

Carrying things too far seemed to be a specialty with regard to security at the team hotel. Gundappa Visvanath the lector was first amused and then exasperated as the gunmen detailed to guard his fellow selector and roommate Akash Lal took his job very seriously. He got +0 much into Vishy’s way that the maestro had difficulty in doing things as he is used to doing them. Short of changing rooms Vishy tried everything. What he could not convey was there ‘was little need for a gunman to reside in the room itself.

Akash must have had a good reason to bring a gunman down from Delhi. He was targeted for dropping Navjot Sidhu and including Arun Lal his cousin in one of the openers’ slots.

Much of India’s concern perhaps needlessly so before the Test was the composition of the final XI. With Azharuddin displaying mare courage the selectors were forced to change the XI they had decided upon in Delhi a clear week before the Test. ‘That they did not believe Raju is India’s best spin prospect and did not put him in the XI then itself is one of those mysteries of the way a committee works.

By the end of the Test some Chandigarhites kept picking Arun Lal for the ‘man of the mathe’ award their reasoning being that only because Arun Lal rather than Navjot Sidhu was in the 14 did the selectors relent to the captain’s request to accommodate Venkatapathy Raju who in turn took all those wickets to win the Test for India.

The rest of the match was all about celebrating something of other. The Punjab CA’s team of officials headed by the dynamic organizer LS. Bindra simply overwhelmed visitors with their brand of hospitality They would not let visitors leave at the conclusion of the Test on the fourth day. A party was arranged the very evening to facilitate Kapil Dev on his taking 376 wickets and anyone wishing to go to Delhi could do so at the peril of displeasing the hosts.

Quite at home: The Lankans were simply thrilled at the treatment they received. They felt quite at home and were reluctant to leave. They were willing to play a one-day international in case the end of the Test came embarrassingly early The islanders are so-starved of Test and international cricket that they are prepared to make any sacrifice to gain experience. Keen souls they may be but they seem to be bowled over if anything goes wrong with the wicket and it behaves in any fashion other than being plum and true

Kapil Dev being Chandigarh’s own lad it was only appropriate that he should be involved in the finish that was doubly memorable for him because he got to a significant landmark. The PCA officials seemed two take the advice of the Chandigarh Police Do not wear heavy jeweler or carry large cash to heart. They gave Kapil a blank envelope no sign of one lakh rupees in it. But this is a secret all cricketers are in the in the know of Receiving the blank envelope is part of the ceremony the money invariably tums up later.

India wanted desperately to win a Test. Sri Lanka wished desperately to play in one. Chandigarh was happy to host it and it was only a matter of keeping the desperate men like the terrorists out of cricket’s Test match party. When they say ‘Spectators watch out welcome to the Cricket Test match’ they are not asking you to look out for sixes hit by young prodigies or ageing all-rounder’s What is meant is please watch out for certain things in view of the prevailing circumstances. Still Chandigarh’s Test birthday bash was interesting

Mohan

Article extracted from this publication >> January 11, 1991