Later that day when Imzamam-ul-Huq was interviewed by television journalists he prefaced every statement with references to Allah! Katyal’s information is that the Pakistani cricketers spent more time in prayers than in planning the moves to be done on field.

He met one cricketer in person who told him in confidence that he envied Indians,”You guys can walk down a street in Mumbai with a beer bottle in one hand and a girl friend in the other. If I try his is my country I will probably escape if a maulvi sees me doing this, but the girl will be flogged. You Indians are a lucky people.”

Readers may recall that one Pakistani cricketer who was a key player with ambitions to become captain of his team. He was told that “a team that prays together plays together.” If he ever wanted to be made captain he would have to embrace Islam. Sure enough some weeks later this man, Yusuf, sported a long beard , embraced Islam and was made captain.

None less than Imran Khan, considered more modern than many other players, used to exhort his players to treat every match with India as a jehad ! There is a story, considered by many to be true, that when Imran met his then girlfriend Jemima’s father and asked for her hand, the flabbergasted father asked Imran if he wanted her hand because she had shoplifted ! He was thinking about the kind of punishment conservative Islamic countries reserve for even minor offences. Contrary to his liberal image, Imran recently supported the Taliban.

The Taliban launched three suicide attacks in 24 hours inside Pakistan. The US told Pakistan that serious steps would have to be launched to stem that country’s slide to anarchy. Tragically Pakistani spokesmen tell us that the people of that country consider India to be their biggest enemy followed by the US.

The Taliban does not figure in their list.

Contrast this with what cricket means to Indians. Sociologist Ashish Nandy says that there are only 3 sectors in India where meritocracy prevails: Bollywood, the underworld and cricket.
I sent a questionnaire to 75 youngsters in India to find out what cricket meant to them. According to these respondents, the great game stands for: merit, talent, small guys can make it big, religion and caste do not play a significant role, fun and music, celebrations, mela and world class India.

Not one talked of religion.

I once visited my nephew in a Mumbai college hostel. I expected to see in his room what could be found in any teenager’s pad namely dirty laundry, posters of girls, film stars, models and cricketers. What I actually saw amused me. There was a Ganesha photo and beside it was – hold your breath – a poster of Irfan Pathan. Looking at my quizzical face, he smiled and said, “Ganesha is my religous God and Irfan is my secular god.”