By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Kolkata : Former India pacer Vivek Razdan and Pakistan’s Rameez Raja – once bitter cricketing rivals – are now sharing radio and television microphones in the ongoing three-match Test series between the two countries.
Rameez Raja, who went on to captain Pakistan team, became the first victim of the lanky Delhi bowler who captured the only five-wicket haul of his two-Test career at Jinnah Stadium in Sialkot in December 1989.
“I still remember the ball. It was an outswinger and as Rameez (Raja) shaped to play a drive he chopped the ball on to his stumps,” Razdan told IANS.
It was only the second, and last, match of Razdan’s Test career. He ended up with five for 79 in that innings before the selectors dropped him from the national team.
Pakistani guests at the Eden
Several Pakistanis are enjoying the cricket action here in the second Test. They have either been invited by the Cricket Association of Bengal, like former captain Asif Iqbal, or have come on their own, like some businessmen from Karachi and the US.
And they all are watching the game from the comfortable cubicles in the B.C. Roy Club House of the Eden Gardens Stadium.
“I am here at the invitation of the CAB. I will not be going to Bangalore for the third match,” Iqbal told IANS.
Asked how he keeps himself busy, he said: “I spend my time playing with my grand children. I also do some work for ARY television channel.”
Asif, who is now based in England, said he has no intention to join cricket administration in Pakistan.
BCCI media accreditation goes waste
The central media accreditation issued by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the series has served no purpose in the Koklata Test. The board had accredited journalists to cover the entire three-Test series.
While the Delhi and District Cricket Association honoured the accreditation in the first Test at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) issued separate tickets for each day of the match for the media.
“The CAB move to issue tickets has made the BCCI accreditation redundant. What is the use of issuing central media accreditation when some of the board’s affiliated units are not honouring it,” said a senior journalist.