Wounded Tiger

Pakistan’s cricketing journey starts well before the Partition of India. It begins in the early 1920s when locals started playing club cricket in Northern Indian towns and cities, particularly the city of Lahore, later giving way to a fierce rivalry between Lahore and Karachi where the precocious Muhammad brothers led by the little master, Hanif, dominated the scene post-1947. Therefrom starts the history of Pakistan according to Peter Oborne’s excellent and meticulously well researched book titled ‘Wounded Tiger, A History of Cricket in Pakistan’. Oborne quite correctly tells the reader that contrary to popular myth the spirit of Pakistan cricket did not derive its origins from the yearly, communal pentangular tournaments where Hindu and Muslim teams invariably battled it out in the finals (at one point, at the height of the Independence Movement, Gandhi exhorted his followers to boycott the tournament as it perpetuated the colonial policy of “divide and rule”).

In order to understand the fighting spirit and the resilience associated with Pakistan cricket one has to travel back in time, and see how playing for a mostly mixed Northern Zone team in the Ranji Trophy taught them natural skills and cricketing etiquette which came to be associated in later years with Pakistan. The slogan of a cornered tiger, popularized by the legendary Imran Khan came much later but definitely had its origins in the fierce competitiveness of the Ranji Trophy and the Bombay Pentangular.

Brian Johnston is famously reported to have quipped on Test Match Special, "The doctor had a look at his head and found nothing in it"

‘Wounded Tiger’ introduces readers to minute but relevant details in a superbly readable form, with Oborne weaving a nexus between political developments of the day with the coming of age of Pakistan cricket after 1947, lucidly unearthing the imprint of one on the other. It is a masterful insight into Pakistan as a society, its original vision as a nation and how cricket shaped its nationalism over the years. In addition to that, it has its fair share of hitherto untold cricketing anecdotes. For example, when Aftab Gul was hit by a bouncer, Brian Johnston is famously reported to have quipped on Test Match Special, “The doctor had a look at his head and found nothing in it”.

Oborne equates the stature of Imran Khan with that of the other two all-time greats of cricket, WG Grace and Sir Donald Bradman

Pakistan’s cricket owes its early rise and recognition to two of its giants, AH Kardar and Fazal Mahmood. Later, after the forgettable depression of the 1960s and 1970s Mushtaq Muhammad and Imran Khan were instrumental in pulling Pakistan out of the depths of defensive cricket by reviving the never say die attitude which survives to this day. Quite remarkably though, Oborne equates the stature of Imran Khan with that of the other two all-time greats of cricket, WG Grace and Sir Donald Bradman. Elsewhere, he cites the resurrection of leg spin and the introduction of reverse swing as Pakistan’s two biggest contributions to modern day cricket.

The book allows a fascinating insight into how Pakistani society works despite looking like a diabolical failure from the outside. It reconstructs a moving scene in which a tearful but silent Kardar is sitting beside the dying Mian Saeed, the first Pakistani captain whom he had once ruthlessly ousted from the team to claim captaincy for himself. Like Kardar, another Oxford graduate, Imran Khan assumed captaincy in similar circumstances in 1981. Javed Miandad, having learned his lessons from the experiences of an older generation, would, as we know, always step down from captaincy every time Imran decided to make a comeback. Imran, like his role model, Kardar, stuck to his guns and ousted his own cousin and benefactor, Majid in very controversial circumstances.



To climb to number three in the ICC Test rankings despite the fact that no test playing team has visited Pakistan in five years is a rare achievement and takes some doing. Only an unpredictable and mercurial side like Pakistan can defy the odds stacked against it. They also did it in the first five years after 1947 by becoming a full member of the Imperial Cricket Council in 1952 by virtually playing club cricket.

The story of Pakistan Women’s team becoming a mid-table side worldwide in a short period of time coming from a deeply conservative and patriarchal society is also an inspiring one. It is hard to imagine that only in the mid 1990s the Khan sisters from Karachi were unsuccessfully lobbying the then CEO of PCB, Majid Khan to play his part in the development of women’s cricket (whom they later unfairly referred to as “an ungodly chauvinist pathan”). The women’s cricket scene nowadays is thriving with more and more girls playing the sport. But, to be fair to him, Majid unveiled an elaborate future action plan for domestic cricket in a recent TV show which though brilliant, has rather expectedly gone literally unnoticed.

Lahore was undoubtedly the center of cricket in Northern India producing great cricketers like Kardar, Lala Amarnath, Fazal Mahmood, Imtiaz Ahmad, Nazar Muhammad and many others. Lala Amarnath was adopted by the well-off Rana family of Lahore (related to Shafqat Rana) when the cricket-crazy elder Rana saw a poor Hindu boy hitting exquisite cover drives in the alleys of old Lahore. In a further twist to the story, Amarnath’s son, Rajender omits this vital information from his father’s biography. Notwithstanding duels between Muslim Islamia College and mostly Hindu Government College, many post partition players, influenced by gaping wounds caused by the Partition, tended to over emphasize the Hindu-Muslim element while describing the fighting spirit of Pakistan cricket. It was in fact, and is, the urge to prove itself against heavy odds that one can correctly describe the vision of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, according to Oborne. On the other hand, a healthy India-Pakistan rivalry can potentially become the biggest cricketing event in intensity and viewership leaving the Ashes far behind. Let’s hope it happens sooner than later.

It has to be said that Amarnath describing the standard of Pakistan cricket as “club level” to the touring West Indian captain in 1948 did not heal any wounds on the other side of the border. After playing highly competitive cricket in 1948 and thereafter against touring teams, Pakistan finally performed brilliantly by beating the Ashes winning MCC side in the Karachi “Test” in 1951 and got the recognition it deserved. The rest, as they say, is history.

Tariq Bashir can be contacted on me@tariqbashir.uk.  Follow him on twitter @Tariq_Bashir