When a onfield spat between Pakistani umpire and England captain created a diplomatic tension

Jul 20, 2016 at 5:08 PM

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When a onfield spat between Pakistani umpire and England captain created a diplomatic tension

England and Pakistan’s cricket ties always bring controversy which sometimes make you laugh or sometimes make u hate. In 1956, England team kidnapped a Pakistani umpire Idris Baig as he was turning down England genuine appeal for run our and lbw.

But it is not the only controversy where an umpire was at the focal point of the controversy.

In 1987 England tour of Pakistan was full of wrong decisions and illicit patriotism.  It was a four-match series. Pakistan Cricket Board selected two “deshi’ umpires Khaizer Hayat and Shakoor Rana to officiate the entire series.

Rana had had a long relationship with controversy while England captain Mike Getting was not a clean man at all.

Before the series, both Rana and Hayat had hosted Pakistan’s series against India in 1978 when India toured Pakistan after breaking 17 years hiatus. During the series,  in one of the match, Rana asked Indian fielder Mohinder Amarnath not to move. Captain  Sunil Gavaskar charged Rana and told him that when Sarfaraz Khan was delivering a ball captain Imran Khan changed his place without informing anyone, so why  he was objecting Amarnath move now.

In 1982-83 India toured Pakistan again, this time, Ravi Shastri faced the wrath of Rana.  Ravi Shastri recalled his first tour, “Imran and Sarfraz would make the ball swing, and then there were those two umpires, Khizer Hayat and Shakoor Rana. It was like playing a four-pronged pace attack.”

In 1984 during the Karachi Test New Zealand captain Jeremy Coney  threatened to take off his team from the match after Rana turned down a genuine lbw appeal against Javed Miandad.

Unfortunately, the Pakistan Cricket Board kept the same pair of the umpire for the England series in 1987. Rana had already made  Getting angry after sporting the Pakistani sweater during the match Faisalabad Test.

It was the first match of the four matches series against Pakistan. On the second afternoon of the match,  just three balls were remaining Pakistan were struggling at 106 for 5 in reply to England’s 292.  With Eddie Hemmings was bowling Getting brought  David Capel to the deep square leg to stop single.  Getting said that he informed batsman Selim Mallik about this change, but  Rana got angry  and stopped the play  as he said Getting cheated him.

A furious Getting charged Rana, who started raising his finger ominously towards Getting, who also got involved in an on-field spat with Rana.  Their heated exchange of words recorded on the stump microphone.

Shakoor Rana and Mike Getting during the match in Faisalabad. 

Rana refused to officiate the match until Getting gives him a written apology, as a result, a half of the third day was also wasted. “In Pakistan, many men have been killed for the sort of insults he threw at me. He’s lucky I didn’t beat him,” Rana said after the row. But Getting said that the square leg umpire didn’t have any business in the match, so he has no reason to  write an apology letter.

Diplomatic tension between Pakistan and England

The fiasco created a diplomatic tension between Pakistan and England.  The Britain ambassador of Pakistan rushed to Faisalabad. TCCB threatened to  strip him off from the captaincy if he didn’t write a letter an apology to  umpire Rana. “Mike Gatting was packed off to the headmaster’s study without so much as a Wisden to stick down the back of his trousers,” wrote Martin Johnson in The Independent who was in Pakistan to cover the series.

The Pakistan government supported Rana  and stick with their words to keep Rana for the remaining matches in the series.  The Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB)  had paid  the England squad more than 1000 euro for the pain they had gone through.

Mike Getting was sacked 

Rana with his decision and Getting’s subsequent letter of apology made  the former famous in Pakistan.  Rana later went on to say, “I do not regret what happened. How can I regret? It made me the most famous umpire.”

Rana for his popularity gave many interviews about this incident to Pakistani scribes.  After six months of this incident, Getting was removed from his captaincy six months as he was allegedly involved in an illicit physical relationship in his hotel room with a hotel maid during a series in England.  However, many still think  his feud with Rana was more responsible for his “sack” than his hotel room controversy.

However, the gutted captain later admitted, “It wasn’t a very proud moment of my career. It is one of those things that has gone down in history. It will probably always be remembered.”

But unfortunately this not the end of controversy between Pakistan and England. In 2006 Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq  withdrew his team from the Oval Test after England team made an allegation of ball tampering  against Inzi’s team. In 2010 Lord’s Test three Pakistani player captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were involved in spot-fixing. Mohammad Amir was 17 then, so he was allowed to comeback in international cricket after serving five years of ban. He played  his first Test at the Lord’s in 2016 and took three wickets to help Pakistan  win the match by 75 runs.

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