Stump Fight at the OK Headingley

Usually Pakistan versus England matches tend to be enjoyable events where Pakistani origin folk living in the UK go to watch some entertaining cricket and get a dose of national pride and sentiment from the homeland. But what transcended at the Headingley ground at Leeds was quite a national disgrace. The question that came to my mind as I sat with friends in the stands was for which country was this incident a national disgrace- Pakistan or England?

Clearly for those who do not live in the cricket world, let us back track and re-live the sequence of events on the infamous evening of the 17th June. Pakistan under the aggressive leadership of Waqar was destroying England. Waqar had single-handedly bowled out the Brits for 150 odd and then Razzaq bhai famously taken by memons to be one of their own, (though really an all rounder from Lahore) came with the bat to demolish the already out of the tournament English team.

As I sat with friends in a pre-dominantly English section of the crowd, I enviably could see brothers and sisters of the Pakistani ummah having a rip rollicking time in the western stand of the ground. Among the few solitary English flags the Pakistani Yorkshire community were in full force – dancing the bhangra, downing the kebabs and chanting the omni present nara of “Pakistan zindabad.”

This was it, I thought. Pakistan national unity at its best. Whether you were a Pakistani born in the homeland, the States, in Bradford or East Africa whether or not you could speak Urdu or Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi or Yorkshire English you shared a sense of united patriotism. There I was jumping up and down as a Pakistani wicket fell along with the little Pakistani boy in front of me with the green painted face and the green dyed hair that made him look like Frankenstein’s monster. When he opened his mouth to say something I barely comprehended his English through his strong Yorkshire accent.

I examined my little friend. Probably supported Leeds United. Probably ate biryani at home and fish and chips at school. Probably doesn’t know what it is like to taste a sindhri mango in Karachi or feel the coolness of the monsoons in a Lahori august. Probably didn’t understand what it took for many Muslims to create Pakistan or maybe what type of nation it is now. I on the other hand probably would never know what it is like being a Yorkshire Pakistani living in Bradford and what it takes to support Leeds United.

It reminded me of what Nasser Hussain the injured English captain said as I saw Owais Shah the Karachi born English player save a four with a stunning drive. I took a cursory glance around the ground and saw more Pakistanis than English supporters. The England team looked like they were playing away in a foreign land. The Pakistanis in the stands were all probably British citizens. Like Owais Shah, they could play cricket for England. But here, nearly all of them were supporting Pakistan and not England. A country they knew better than that of their origin. Hmm interesting. The Tebbit’s test was working. From an Englishman’s perspective would it be fair to allow these people to be citizens? Obviously their national allegiances were elsewhere. Was this historical revenge on the English nation? After 250 years of colonialism Pakistanis were now present in their neck of the woods –taking advantage of all that is British, and in essence always clinging on to an overall national identity.

As Razzaq hit a six off Mulally (aka “Mullah Ali” to the Pakistani crowd) the thought of multi-culturalism came to mind. Is England and the UK becoming a nation based on immigrants from around the world? Is it like America a place for all races, all people and all languages? What about the purity of the English culture? The tradition, the class system, soccer, steak and kidney pie? It was all changing slowly in front of my eyes. Maybe twenty years from now a Pakistan England game would comprise of cricketers from Asian descent.

Clearly as victory appeared imminent, the English in the crowd appeared dejected and the western stand filled with Pakistanis let out the firecrackers and the horns. The “hula gula” had now generated epic proportions. The police squad braced itself and entered a section of the Pakistani supporters who were now seriously creating a lot of ruckus that even created a distraction for the Pakistani batsmen. Every Pakistani shot was purposefully coinciding with a “patakha” from the crowd. I could over hear the English spectators sitting behind me murmuring how the crowd was looking volatile and a little dangerous. A pitch invasion was definitely on the cards.

And then with 10 runs to win, anarchy erupted from the western front. “Puppu” faced Ahzar Mahmood wacked a lovely six over the covers into the stands. One Pakistani supporter dressed in green dashed onto the field. One become two, two became three and then the hordes and multitudes of supporters dashed on to the field. I imagined what a medieval war would have been like. It was like Leeds had been conquered. The English had been defeated. The fortress of the stumps that stood bare on the sacrilegious pitch were for the barbarians for spoil. Never had I seen such an intoxicated rush for the stumps. The stewards and the police around were helpless and focused their attention on the security of the players. The mosh pit on the pitch for the stumps looked like an all out brawl fight. Within minutes Pakistani boys had grabbed a wicket and were parading the field for joy on capturing the ultimate prize. With the match not technically being over, the English team worried about safety, conceded the match to Pakistan.

Once the dust had settled, a victim lay injured on the ground. An English steward had broken his ribs and injured his spleen in an effort to save the stumps. It was at that moment, that all the joy and zeal I had experienced in a Pakistan victory evaporated. I felt ashamed. While having fun and chanting competitive slogans is all a part of the event, the result of an injured person lying in pain due to a frenzied mob was quite disconcerting.

Was this mad, crazy and riotous behaviour a part of Pakistani culture or was it a borrowed trait of English hooliganism? I remembered all the incidents I had experienced and read about in Pakistan. Riots in Karachi, matches being postponed due to crowd behaviour and the general violence I had experienced in colleges in Pakistan. But these crowd invaders were mostly Yorkshire Pakistanis. Maybe it was a reaction to some of the tensions Asians had endured. The Oldham riots which resulted in racist tensions were not to far back and pretty close to Leeds. Maybe this barbaric act of raiding the field was an overflow of patriotism – an act of identity, a revolt against the English establishment that still in many ways has not solved the racist and bigotry issues that Asian communities deal with.

So with the drive back home on the M1 I thought about the freedom of expression. Mr. Nasser Hussain you may feel bad about people your own colour not supporting you and your English cricket team. But it is not a fair test of their patriotism Mr Tebbit. In today’s day and age you can be British and love the Pakistani cricket team and support Beckham if he ever plays soccer against Pakistan. You can love curry and vote Conservative and run as an MP in your locality and listen to ghazals. Multiculturalism is here to stay and lots of work still needs to be done especially in relatively homogenous nations such as UK, France and Germany.

Maybe one day Asians across cricket grounds will be careful in crossing the line between fun and rowdy behaviour. Let us be free to decide our culture and our national patriotism - no matter how muddled. Let us feel assimilated into society and feel as equal as others under the eyes of institutions, corporations and governments. Maybe then and only then will a crowd invasion in an England Pakistan match be more of a civil tradition then a free for all stump fight.