Cricket latest
KARACHI: Pakistan’s previous military ruler Pervez Musharraf, the designer of the
Kargil War
in 1999, enjoyed his cricket.
Musharraf, who died in a Dubai health center on Sunday, utilized cricket as a strong diplomatic tool to enhance relations in between the 2 nations when he led Pakistan initially as Chief Executive and after that President.
A passionate fan of the video game, Musharraf lost no time at all in bringing his blue eyed kid, Lt-General
Tauqir Zia
as chairman of the cricket board right after his military coup in October 1999.
In 2003 the minute he discovered that Tauqir’s kid Junaid had actually played for Pakistan, Musharraf asked the
PCB
chairman to resign as he saw the whole episode as a dispute of interest.
Musharraf then generated previous profession diplomat and ex foreign secretary,
Shaharyar Khan
who had actually acted as ambassador in New Delhi, to head the cricket board.
And a couple of months later on, Shaharyar satisfied Musharraf’s aspiration of having the Indian group trip Pakistan.
Prior to Musharraf’s coup, Pakistan had actually been to India in early 1999 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Indian Prime Minister however after that there were no bilateral exchanges in between the 2 nations till 2004.
The Indian group led by Saurav Ganguly can be found in March-April 2004 and it ended up being a well-known diplomatic success for the military ruler as the leading names from India consisting of federal government ministers and celebs were welcomed to Pakistan to view the matches with red carpet treatment set out for them.
The trip was a success with Musharraf losing no chance to have image shoots with the Indian group and his popular remarks about MS Dhoni’s hairdo ended up being a hit in both nations.
His conference with the Indian group gamers were all workouts targeted at softening relations in between the 2 nations and to depict himself as a moderate and liberal leader.
And the strategy worked to a fantastic degree as never ever in the period of a Pakistani premier or President did so lots of Indo-Pak bilateral series happen than in Musharraf’s period.
After the 2004 series, India returned to Pakistan in early 2006 while the Pakistan group likewise explored India for complete Test series initially in 2005 and after that in 2007 going back to Pakistan in 2008 for the Asia Cup.
Prior to Musharraf’s time, bilateral trips in between the 2 nations had actually been far and couple of with substantial spaces in between. Pakistan went to India in 1979-80 after a space of almost 18 years and India concerned Pakistan in 1978/79 for the very first time considering that 1954/55.
Paradoxically these trips in the late 70s likewise happened throughout the period of another military totalitarian, General
Zia ul Haq
who likewise utilized cricket diplomacy to decrease stress.
Musharraf himself squandered no chance to appear at cricket matches even in India when Pakistan was playing. In 2005, he showed up at the Feroze Shah Kotla ground to a warm welcome.