Date-stamped : 16 Sep97 - 06:08
The Inzamam-ul-Haq incident- eye witness accounts

Exclusive to CricInfo

Two correspondents of CricInfo were seating in the section 
that was the site of the  Inzamam Ul-Haq  incident on
Sunday. As such they had a much better view of the proceedings,
and what led up to it than many in the press box. We bring you
their accounts below. 

We recieved a third eye-witness report from Virendra Mane, who
was also in the area, and we have included this also. 

Firstly from George Heard.

This is a personal account (written the following day) of the
incident at the 2nd Sahara Cup match between India and Pakistan
at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling club. I apologise
for anything left out, and especially if I have any of the
players' names wrong.

George Heard (Laurie 8) heard@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca 15th
September, 1997


We had pretty good seats in one of the stands around the Toronto
Cricket, Skating and Curling club. We were pretty much
surrounded by Indian fans, and sitting right at fine leg. There
was a guy behind us with a megaphone who was cracking up all the
Indian fans by making jokes about the players and leading
chants. I don't speak any Hindi (apologies again if he was
speaking Urdu), so I had to rely on occasional translations from
three guys sitting in front of me.


Fast-forward to the Pakistan innings...

While Ul-haq was "batting", the megaphone guy was calling him
fat and telling him to stop feeling himself between balls. He
gave the guy a few glares.

Now here comes the Indian innings. Hasan Raza came to field at
fine leg. The megaphone guy was telling him that if he wanted a
beer, we'd buy him a beer (Raza is 16). Ul-haq was fielding at
slip, and the megaphone guy was calling him fat and everytime he
put his hands on his hips, was calling out that Ul-haq was
feeling the potatoes in his stomach (thanks to the guy sitting
in front of us who did some translating).

India had an easy chase. Saba Karim (the wicketkeeper) went out
early (good, I wanted to see Tendulkar). Ganguly and Dravid had
put on 50, and the game was pretty much over. The real
excitement was this guy with the megaphone cracking up everyone
in our stand.

Then the Pakistan 12th man came out with some equipment and sat
in front of our stand on the grass... next thing we know, Ul-haq
charges across the field, jumps over the small fence separating
the ground from the stands, climbs up through the crowd, and
grabs the megaphone and starts thumping the guy. Then he runs
back down to the ground, grabs a bat off the 12th man (Mohammad
Hussain, from the cricket record), comes back into the crowd and
starts swinging the bat at fans. Police charge around and into
the stand and grab Ul-haq and start dragging him off. The guys
in the stand are hurling things at Ul-haq, and then fights break
out. Michaele and I decide this is not a nice place to be, and
we try to pick our way out of the crowd... both umpires (Steve
Randell and Steve Bucknor) come over to try and calm things
down, then lead the players off the ground.

Mic and I have made our way out of the stand - the police are
standing with their weapons around the edge of the field now.
There's some fights going on - a few guys had charged on to the
ground after Ul-haq and were being cuffed. We stood by the TV
area and watched, along with a few other people from the stand
who escaped.

Madan Lal comes out with a megaphone to try and calm the crowd
down. He seems to be doing OK, when the police came and told Mic
and I to go back to our seats, and once everyone was seated, the
game will start again. We said we didn't want to go back to our
seats because they were in that stand. So we were given new
seats in a stand right on midwicket. The crowd were
calmed down... the announcers said they were going to get the
game started... the umpires came out, and the players came on...
Ul-haq is back on the field!

The stand starts up again, hurling stuff onto the ground. The
next few overs were played with six policemen standing on the
ground at fine leg/long off, facing the crowd (Rameez Raja came
down to field a ball and got booed, but nothing was thrown at
him). There's a long chant, something about Ul-haq. He took a
catch at first slip to get Ganguly out and was booed. Tendulkar
and Azharuddin eventually won the game for India, but it was
definitely the weirdest thing I'm likely to ever see at a
cricket game. After a few overs, the police left the ground and
stood beside the stand.

To editorialize a little, Ul-haq should no way have done what he
had done, but I think there should have been something done
about the guy with the megaphone. He was on Ul-haq's case from
the very first time he took to the field. He was making some
comments about Ganguly (who gave him dirty looks while fielding
at fine leg), Raza (who took this all pretty well and ended up a
crowd favourite in front of the stand), and Malik (who wasn't
ever on our side of the ground and probably didn't hear him).
However the constant badgering of Ul-haq was probably grounds
for one of the staff to ask him to turn off the megaphone. The
sound must have been very clear on the ground, since Ul-haq
while batting and Randell while umpiring at square leg
acknowleged things that were said. The crowd in the stand were
mainly showing off for the cameras, although there were a few
legitimate fights, most of it seemed to be about getting on TV
(there was some real showboating when a local cameraman climbed
into the stand in the middle of the fuss... the police had words
with him afterwards, and I didn't get to see his station's news
reports, so I don't know if any of his mid-crowd footage was
aired), but the behaviour isn't going to help Vision 2000 or the
profile of cricket in Canada at all. Bringing Ul-haq back onto
the ground was a big mistake, and nearly sparked the crowd off
to something dirty again. It may have been the case that with
Kabir Khan injured there was no member of the Pakistan team who
could have fielded in his place. Madan Lal did an impressive job
as a peacemaker, although the police didn't want him getting
involved. Why a bat was allowed to be brought to in front of the
fence is beyond me.

I hope this incident can be largely ignored for the rest of the
Sahara Cup matches, and the rest of the games played in good
spirit, good weather and good cricket. It was an excellent day
to be watching cricket.

Amol (Sadiq Yusuf: offie@aol.com) was stting close to George
Heard. This is extracted from his comments on the internet relay
chat channel #cricket.

On the atmosphere in the crowd before the incident

There was no potential for trouble whatsoever for 2 days,
between the fans - not even half an incident, very amicable. We
had been listening to this guy with the loudspeaker for 2 days.
I spoke a few words with him the first match. He said almost
nothing obscene, as far as i can remember, irritating as hell,
when you're losing, of course, mocking stuff. I was 10 yards
away and it wasn.t ear shattering - the whistles from other ppl
were worse. I told my friend to talk to him on the first day as
the "pakistan...pooooo" was getting boring after 3/4 yrs and he
did cut down on that later.  He had this whistle-like sound he
made with his lips into the megaphone. "paoooooooo". It caused
no problems in the crowd - nothing anywhere close to tension. We
had Pakistanis sitting 2 rows behind us - he was getting on
their nerves, sure. He was mocking. taunting, but it was to
fans, more than players, really. Especially  when you live in
the USA, you see worse abuse between players at high school
level - I've heard far worse abuse than this at college and
school level cricket in Bombay. He was the  class clown type.
For long periods first day, he was singing bits of old hindi TV
commercials from back in the 80's which went down very well with
the audience - he did the zandu balm song and the nirma washing
powder song. I didn't hear a word about the families of players,
there was not a word of obscene stuff. Inzi was called "aloo"
(potato) for 2 days but frankly, inzi was hardly targeted. I
can't even think what sparked Inzi at that time.

Hassan Raza was fielding 3 feet from me - this same loudspeaker
guy was teasing him all the time. He's a great kid - the crowd
talked to him and about him far more than Inzi, and he was great
with it. He almost got adopted by the section. They asked him in
hindi to let them know if he wanted a beer and he burst out
laughing. Saqlain was fielding 3 feet from us the first day. He
was signing autographs for us between balls, and talking. Not
one Pakistani who was on the boundary complained in 2 days. Inzi
didn't move from slip in 2 days -he didn't once field in the
outfield


His view of the incident itself

I was about 10-15 yards from the guy with the megaphone. Inzi
slowly jogged up towards our area. We thought he was going to
field there - he'd been fielding in the slips up to then. I even
turned to my friend and said "hey, he's fielding here, we should
get a picture" and then boom, he was sprinting up the stands. So
he charges up the stands, grabs the guy, pushes him then swings
at him, misses i think, tries to hit him again (obscured
view,mostly) being held back by a fan wearing a Michigan shirt
(who told us some of this later). Then he grabs hold of the guy,
and drags him down stairs. He's held back again so jumps back
over the 2.5 ft high boundary fence back to field,  picks up bat
and swings it above his head, trying to go at him with it. The
bat was brought out to the fine leg area and was kept there, 1
over previously, by the Pakistan 12th man - well, thats what I
was told by the guys there. I hadn't noticed the bat was brought
out earlier. but no Pakistan players were around there when Inzi
charged, really and it happened too fast. There's no way  a 12th
man could have got from the pavillion to that spot with a bat in
that short a time.

After the incident...

There was almost a riot after the attack - incredibly volatile
for a few moments. Almost the entire section said they wouldn't
allow the game to continue unless Inzi apologized in person. I
was one of the few people running around shouting at them to
settle down and the only reason people listened, was that I
explained that the only reason inzi had attacked was to get the
game to be abandoned, as Pakistan were losing! The 2 guys
arrested fought each other, 3 yards from me. One of them was
bodily tossed over the 2.5 ft barrier by a couple other guys
landed on his face, was handcuffed behind his back and he was
led off. There is no way the game could have continued right
then, no matter what the police did - it barely could continue
30 mins later - and there only were about 4 cops. After the
incident, there was not a hint of crowd trouble between fans
There was no reason to bring inzi back in to field, after the
incident - that was what almost caused the riot - as the crowd
was told that he would be disqualified, even though he wasn't
apologizing.

Another account from Virendra Mane <vmane@emc.com>

This is about the incident that took place on 14 Sept. in 2nd
match of the Sahara Cup - India verses Pakistan.

I had a seat in the same stand where the spectator with a
megaphone was booing and cracking jokes on Inzamam. The stand is
located at fine leg when the bowling is from Wilson Avenue end.
The stand was mostly occupied by indians supporters but there
were considerable number of pakistan supporters, infact I was
surrounded from all sides with them.

Since the morning this spectator, named Shivsingh, was shouting
some thing or the other to all the players who were fielding
near our stands. He was not at all abusive or did not pass on
any ugly comments. Infact, the indian players Debashish Mohanty,
Saurabh Ganguly and Aby Kuruvilla, who fielded at this position
appreciated some of the comments made by this spectator. when
Debashish Mohanty was drinking "Diet Coke", this guy remarked -
"you are too thin to drink diet coke", and Debashish smiled
back. I disagree to George Heard, in his article he mentioned
that Ganguly gave Shivshing dirty looks. Neither ugly/obscene
comments were made to Ganguly nor gave dirty looks. He was
always cheered and also was laughing at the jokes.

When Inzamam was batting, some remarks were made on him too.
Inzamam in turn stared at this guy - maybe this added fuel to
the verbal attack on Inzamam. At the time of Indian batting,
Hasan Raza (15 year old batsman) fielded all the time in front
of our stand. He was the player who got most of the jokes
cracked on him. Once in a while Inzamam was called "aloo" i.e.
potato. These jokes, remarks, were enjoyed even by the Pakistani
supporters too.

In the drinks interval, I went near the fence to take a picture
of Hasan Raza, as I thought the photo will come out well when he
is coming back. But to my surprise, he went to the opposite end
and Inzamam started running towards the fence. The crowd thought
he is coming just to answer this guy and have some more fun and
everybody initially appreciated his gesture by clapping. But
suddenly he jumped over the fence near me, went straight up
jumping over the seats (there were no steps to climb at this
place). Got hold of the guys shirt, started thumping him and
pulled him back down to the ground. The Pakistan 12th man
Mohammad Hussain had brought a bat from the pavilion just before
the drinks interval and had kept it right on the fence. Inzamam
picked this bat and swung it fiercely towards Shivsingh's head,
but he ducked down and was saved. I think, the bat struck the
megaphone in his hands, and it felt down on the ground. Inzamam
swung the bat again, but this time he was pulled back by two
policemen (might be stadium security also). By this time the
crowd recovered from the shock of what was happening and started
shouting against Inzamam and Pakistan. Inzamam, was still trying
to come back but he was taken back forcibly by the police
officers.

The Canadian police, unaware of the reasons for the scuffle,
tried to calm down the crowd. The spectators were only demanding
apologies from Inzamam. A couple of spectators threw water
bottles in the ground, but they were stopped immediately. I was
one of the people who stopped the spectators from throwing
debris in the ground. What we have done in Calcutta is enough
and should not be repeated.

The players went back in the pavilion and Umpire Steve Bucknor
came to this stands, he tried to calm down people, but was not
listening to anybody. I tried to tell him that Mohammad Husain
had brought the bat to the stands but he did not reply at all,
maybe he was not able to hear me.

After some time Madan lal did a good job of calming the crowds.
Later on, Shivsingh was taken in to the pavilion, I think, to
talk with officials. When he returned back, he was told to sit
in another stand.

The ugly incident should not have happened at all, but hence
forth, care should be taken to avoid them. Not allowing mega-
phones in stadium is not going to help, sure it would reduce the
distance at which the noise can be heard. The players on the
boundary lines are were close and often are targets to such
jeering or many times good jokes/appreciation.

The two matches have been played in a very relaxed atmosphere,
there was not a single incident between Indians and Pakistanis.
Everybody was very friendly yes, they were supporting their
teams, but not hurting anybody personally. A small incident went
un-noticed, Izaz Ahmed showed "middle finger" to the people
shouting "Jeetega bhai Jeetega ...". The players should either
ignore the comments or respond to them sportingly so that no
negative comments will be made. Finally, we should forget what
have happened and should enjoy the remaining matches.

<END> Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)