By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Jaipur : Curators at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here are among millions of Sachin Tendulkar fans who want the batting maestro to break the ’90 jinx’ and score his much-awaited 42nd One-Day International century.
“I have watched him smash a century and two half-centuries in the five ODIs he has played on this ground. And we would like him to score another century here,” pitch curator Abdul Saeed told IANS on the eve of the match.
Although Saeed and his ground staff want Tendulkar, who has got out in the 90s 16 times in 406 ODIs, to score a ton against Pakistan in the fifth and final match here Sunday, they might have to wait a while for that to happen as the Mumbaikar may be rested for the day-night encounter.
India have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, and the team management would like to give an opportunity to the youngsters who have not played a single match in the series.
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Shoaib back in ‘forgettable’ Jaipur
Pakistani pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar is back in Jaipur a little over a year after he was sent back home from here for having tested positive for a banned drug. It was on the eve of Pakistan’s opening Champions Trophy match against Sri Lanka that he, along with Mohammed Asif, was sent back to Pakistan.
Akhtar was having breakfast at the Rajputana Sheraton when a grim-faced team manager Talat Ali walked into the hotel restaurant and broke the news to him and took the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ along. A few hours later, Akhtar and Asif were packed in a car and sent to Delhi on way back to Pakistan. Both speedsters were initially banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board but were later allowed to play international cricket.
Interestingly, the scroll running on the home page of the official Rajasthan Cricket Association website says, “Shoaib Akhtar sent home after bust up with Asif”, referring to a separate incident in South Africa recently.
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Rajasthan cricket seeped in history
Like the state itself, Rajasthan cricket has a long and eventful cricket history. The first match in Rajputana, a combination of princely states, was played in 1887. It was a game between two Ajmer institutions, Mayo College and Government College, and it ended in a tie!
The first outstation team to play in this province was the Railways team from Bombay, called Blue Castle XI. They played against Mayo College in Ajmer in 1890-91.
The first ODI in Jaipur was played between India and Pakistan Oct 2, 1983, and the lone Test here was played in 1987, also between the two countries.
It was a historic occasion as Pakistan’s then military ruler Gen Zia ul Haq watched a day’s play in the Test. He flew in from Sri Lanka, where he was paying an official visit, to watch the Test, though diplomats said his game was to test the political waters in India, with whom the relations were then in the deep freeze.
That Rajasthan has not produced a single Test player in the 75 years of Indian Test history is an altogether different story.