The Cricket Interview/Asif Iqbal
'Playing cricket is easier than organising it'
When Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bukhatir and a group of cricket enthusiasts in the United Arab Emirates set up the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series and dreamt up regular tournaments in Sharjah, not many in the starchy cricket establishment gave them a chance.
Sixteen years after India and Pakistan first met on artificial turf on April 3, 1981, the Sheikh and his loyal band of volunteers are having the last laugh. Last fortnight, the International Cricket Council awarded the one-day world series to Sharjah, finally confirming cachet on cricket in the desert.
The man most credit with masterminding Sharjah's phenomenal rise is Asif Iqbal. In this interview with Anant Gaundalkar, the former Kent and Pakistan player provides some insight into what it takes to organise an event like the ongoing Champions Trophy.
How did all this begin?
There was a time when I was afraid whether anyone at all would turn up to watch a game played on a concrete wicket with a scaffolding stand. That was how we started at Sharjah. It was almost 17 years ago and two sides styled as a Javed Miandad XI and a Sunil Gavaskar XI were playing to raise a benefit purse for Hanif Mohammad and myself. In the event, so many people turned up that day, that one's only fear was whether the stands, temporarily devised and constructed, would be able to cope. They did, and we have not looked back since.
That evening, after the game, I remember a meeting with Abdul Rehman Bukhatir in which he presented Hanif and myself with cheques for $ 50,000 each. That he had promised to do, but then came an entirely unexpected gesture from him; he presented the manager of the Indian side, Madhav Mantri, with a cheque for $ 20,000. It was that action of Bukhatir's that gave me the idea of a regular arrangement for the benefit of players from the sub-continent. Thus the CBFS was born.
How do you account for its success?
We won the approval of the official bodies and fully representative national sides have come from all the Test-playing countries; from one tournament a year we have gone on to staging two tournaments annually. The Sharjah Cup, which is played in early spring, and the Champions Trophy, which is played in early winter. Our benefit programmes have gone out to players from every cricket-playing country, except England. It should not be long before someone from there gets his turn.
Are you planning to increase the rewards for the cricketers of yesteryear? And are you planning to improve the wickets in the desert?
We would, of course, like our benefit amounts to be even bigger than they are, but we have our limitations. It is widely felt that we make a lot of money, but given the initial investment of millions of dirhams in setting up a stadium and now floodlit facilities of international calibre on which the interest alone would be very high, the sums look very different indeed. There have been many tournaments in which we suffered a loss but we have never defaulted in our commitments to our beneficiaries.
And although the benefits under the English county system are at times higher, we at the CBFS do not believe in making a player go around with a begging bowl. All that he has to do is to come and play. Retired players do not even have to do that.
We have in Sharjah today one of the finest one-day wickets in the world -- even Dickie Bird has said so. We have introduced the concept of off-shore cricket and were the first to bring in neutral umpires for international tournaments, a move which has become standard practice in the cricketing world today. It is no secret that the main moneyspinner for CBFS are the India-Pakistan games, which always draw a full house.
Both the boards know this and we have had to rely very heavily on these two cricketing boards for whatever we have been able to achieve. I feel no hesitation in acknowledging that without their active support, it would not have been possible for us to come this far this soon.
Great credit is also due to our small team. Abdul, Mr Qasim Noorani, who I feel has never received the recognition he deserves. He is the real man behind the scenes, ably supported by a dedicated handful consisting of Shahnaz, Irshad Ali, Anwar and last, but by no means least, Ishaq, our groundsman. I know how difficult their job is and have no doubt in my mind that playing cricket is an infinitely easier business than organising it.
How different is cricket in the desert from Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in the services?
There was much scepticism about Abdul Rehman Bukhatir when he started this venture and there were those who felt that we were seeing the rise of a ‘Desert Packer.’ They did not appreciate the fact that his aims were very different. He set out to do what he had to do and is happy with what we have achieved. The CBFS has augmented the official bodies in the area, it has no desire whatsoever of superseding them.
I would like to think that the CBFS has made some sort of lasting contribution to the cultural ethos of the Emirates and has given the large expatriate population something to be proud of. Many of them have been given a chance to see their cricketing heroes which would otherwise not have been possible for them. By seeing the great exploits of their compatriots, they have been able to feel a sense of pride which does not always get a chance to express itself away from home.
In fact, the Sharjah cricket season has gone much beyond the bounds of cricket and has become, over the years, a meeting ground for Indians and Pakistanis from various walks of life. Some come as guests, others as guests of guests. What a few take away is the very precious privilege of coming to know some of their cricketing heroes firsthand and those who are not similarly privileged, can always pretend to do so.
Among those who inhabit the VIP boxes in Sharjah and jostle for places in line with the television cameras, there is hardly anyone to whom Imran is not ‘Immi’, Azhar is not ‘Ajju’, Bird is not ‘Dicky’, Henry Blofeld is not Blowers. We may have former cricketers in the box as experts, but the real authority and expertise is giving running commentary in the VIP enclosure!
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