As cricket venues go, it is a small, intimate place, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Once Pakistan’s second home, with green caps visiting twice a year for the carnival that the CBFS used to put together with such razzmatazz, Sharjah had been out of the radar for a decade or so. And precisely for this reason, for cricket here was said to be of pre-arranged variety. Tainted, it was put of service owing to the ICC’s overzealous anti-corruption sleuths dubbing the place not suited to cricket. (How could a stadium be ‘tainted’ is beyond one though, but let us let it pass for the moment). Meanwhile, abandoned as a cricketing destination for reasons of security, Pakistan played some Test cricket here. Now and again some fringe cricket was played here too, such as the ICC fixture for some obscure ICC tournament that one doesn’t recall between Afghanistan and Canada.
But Sunday, with Pakistan coming over again to take on Sri Lanka in the fourth game of the rubber, the SCS was brought back to life – literally from the dead. The stands were chock-a-block, and the crowd demonstrated its usual energy and effervescence. To make most of the occasion, the Guinness Book of Records guys also showed up to officially acknowledge it for what we had already known – the stadium that had by some distance hosted more one-day games than any other, 201 to be precise. From its initiation till its abandonment and now its partial revival (England still doesn’t to step in here when they come to the UAE early 2012 for Pakistan’s home series, something that doesn’t sit well with that ‘paragon’ of excellence and virtue, Asif Iqbal, or so he blurted out in a self-serving piece in a leading Dubai daily).
And there is a bit of irony here. Before the ongoing series with Sri Lanka, SCS was a dilapidated place. Out of disuse it had decayed beyond belief. Now, by playing here, Pakistan has done it a very good turn. Not only has it been put back on the map, it was all spruced up – new chairs, decent repairs and a fresh coat of paint. Dolled up so, the place looked prim – as it used to in its prime. While our own stadiums are going to rot!
