Daily Times

October 17, 2016 (Monday) will be remembered in Pakistan cricket history for a long time. Pakistan, led by Misbahul Haq, became the first Asian team to win their first day-night Test played with a pink ball against the West Indies in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A heroic and historic century from Darren Bravo put the West Indies in sight of the unlikeliest win in the first Test before Pakistan finally prevailed by 56 runs on an absorbing final day of the contest. Chasing a daunting target of 346, Bravo compiled the eighth Test ton of his career to offer the faint prospect of a fantastic West Indies win after they had trailed by 222 on first innings following Pakistan’s monumental 579 for three. We must appreciate the fact that despite being the under-dogs, the West Indians did show a lot of grit in defying what Pakistan had on offer in a mixture of pace and spin attack.

Cricket saw the innovation of day-night Tests with a pink ball for the first time when Australia played New Zealand at Adelaide in November last year, attempting to reverse the trend of dwindling Test crowds. The Test, played under floodlights for the first time in Asia, coincidentally, was also Pakistan’s 400th Test. No doubt the match was a landmark event and a beginning which may have in future a far-reaching result on Tests which have since 1877 been played in traditional white clothing and with red ball. The Adelaide Test ended in three days but not before it attracted a record 123,000 fans. The Test in Dubai, the second in history, was not able to match the Adelaide game in numbers that turned up but it certainly was a format worth trying.

Unable to host matches at home since 2009 due to security concerns, Pakistan now play their “home” matches in the UAE, but they rarely get big crowds for Test cricket in venues like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. While the whole idea of day-night Tests is to attract bigger crowds to the ground, this first Test had mostly empty stands despite Pakistan’s batsmen scoring runs with ease.

Pakistan opener Azhar Ali made his team’s historic 400th Test even more memorable by scoring a triple-hundred. It was a moment of triumph for Azhar who became Pakistan’s fourth batsmen in the triple-century club after Hanif Mohammad (337), Inzamamul Haq (329) and Younus Khan (313). He spent two minutes short of 11 hours at the crease to score an unbeaten 302 off 469 balls with the help of 23 fours and two sixes. Fourteen years ago Azhar came on as a substitute fielder to see Inzamam score an epic triple hundred in Lahore and wished he could emulate the legendary Pakistan batsman in future.

And in 2016 in Dubai, Azhar notched his own to join a select league of batsmen. But what distinguishes the 31-year-old from the rest of the triple centurions is that he became the first batsman in day-night Test cricket to achieve the landmark. Apart from him and Inzamam, late Hanif knocked 337 against West Indies at Bridgetown in 1958 and Younus made 313 against Sri Lanka in Karachi in 2009. Since his arrival on the international scene, Azhar has impressed with his resolute batting and is likely to anchor Pakistan’s batting once Younus and skipper Misbah leave the stage. He has already replaced Misbah as captain of the one-day team.

Opening the batting in Tests was a new role for Azhar, who also crossed 4000 Test runs in his 50th Test. While he had done it earlier only in four matches between 2013 and 2015, he was asked to open again recently, during the fourth Test in England, as Mohammad Hafeez was dropped after a poor run. With Shoaib Malik also retired from Tests, Azhar seems to have now taken the role on for a longer run. One consequence of opening also means Azhar would have to bat for longer periods when he scores big, and its effects were seen when he started cramping after reaching his hundred.

It was also heartening to witness leg-spinner Yasir Shah becoming the second joint-fastest bowler to take 100 wickets in all Test cricket with the conclusion of the day-night Test. The 30-year-old dismissed West Indian tail-ender Miguel Cummins to complete 100 wickets in his 17th Test match, the fastest Pakistani to the milestone. England’s right-arm medium-pacer George Lohmann reached 100 Test wickets in just 16 Test matches in 1896 which still is a world record in Test cricket’s 140-year-old history. Australia’s Charlie Turner and Clarrie Grimmett and England’s Sydney Barnes each got to the milestone in their 17th Test. Yasir, who made his debut at the same venue in October 2014, bettered off-spinner Saeed Ajmal who held the Pakistan record of fastest to 100 Tests wickets in 19 matches.

It was almost forty years ago, in 1977, that the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer having reacted to not being given TV rights by the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) secretly started to sign world’s star cricketers to have his own World Series Cricket (WSC) and teach the Australian establishment a lesson. And he sued the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to get bans on the players lifted, which was slapped on them by their own cricket establishments. Packer won the case as his lawyer Lord Alexander argued on point of ‘restraint of trade act’ which that no one can deprive anyone of earning his living. And not much later Packer started his own cricket circus having offered exorbitant amount of money to great cricketers of the day to play limited-over games in coloured clothing, and also introducing with it floodlit cricket, white ball, black screen and drop-in pitches. These innovations in the game – far away from traditional cricket – angered the purists and criticism abounded to malign the man. He continued his mission with a passion with which he started till the authorities bowed down and offered him the rights to televise international cricket for his Channel 9. Packer then disbanded his cricket circus but left a legacy which now hails him as the game’s benefactor. Players who were paid pittance now have started to earn big sums and their quality of life has been elevated as well as their status.

The new brand of game which he introduced caught up like wildfire among the followers and cricket becoming a different ball game altogether. The finances generated from instant cricket now sustain the Tests and the sport has a lot more passionate following. Now that day-and-night Test cricket has started – though still in its infancy – may in future also get the same billing.