In Toronto, there is an air of excitement from a rather unusual source. Serious cricket has come to Canadian shores in the guise of the game's most engaging foes--India and Pakistan. Toronto has a bounty of folks from these nations and fair chunk can be found chatting in animated tones about the Sahara Tournament, a.k.a. the Friendship Cup. The latter is perhaps a more apt appellation; it has been well established that communion between the two nations has been, unfortunately, restricted to border skirmishes. The premise, laudable though it is--a tournament of a sporting nature--will not mend fences. But, even before a ball has been bowled, it has succeeded in collecting two very mercurial sides on common ground. Two sides, if I may beat this to death, who have, for a variety of reasons, being thwarted from drawing sabres as often as they would have preferred. Infact, this March was the first time in seven years that the Pakistan cricket team set foot on Indian soil. Neutral arenas--Sharjah, Singapore, Australia--have had far greater success in hosting fixtures between them. Toronto, Canada, is the freshest name on the list.

This side of the Atlantic, discussions on the game are appreciably less profound, and so, rarely will you hear matters being probed further than predictions of an eventual scoreline--which, I discovered, is not as simple as some make it appear.
A few days ago, during the course of lunch on Chicago's Devon Avenue, I overheard a couple in the adjoining booth:
"4-1 Pakistan, of course," was one Peshawari's take. His Delhi partner shook the egg firmly and inverted his colleagues figures; elucidating his forecast, kabab in hand, with, "We have Kapil on our side. He is fit again, isn't he?"
It was a difficult situation and I felt quite like I was stealing the last remaining joy from the man's life but, he had to be informed that India's famous all-rounder was no longer on the payroll. "Although, " I hastened to comfort him, "he played for much, much longer than was required."

Recent immigrants are well apprised of the teams' standards--knowledge which is rarely used for an intelligent assessment since they have their own set of figures. Depending on who you ask, you'll get auguries that are eerily similar to their less acquainted peers', underlining the fact that when India and Pakistan pull into a stadium, allegiance to one's national side, is never, ever abjured--even in the face of daunting statistics.

The data bank piles the thing in Pakistan's favor. It leads India 29-12 head to head--a ratio India would seek to even out in the very near future. For now, they go into the competition on the heels of a battering by two of the three teams they squared off against in the recently concluded Singer Cup. Sri Lanka chewed them up--as did Australia while Sachin Tendulkar, the finest bat of my times, cracked a ton and was generally to be found among the thick of things. True, he had an off day at work in the crucial Australia fixture-- something that varnished off onto his squad and, after doing it to the Zimbabweans, the Indians politely shimmered out of the way. (Sri Lanka, it might be useful to know, added more brass to their already splendid collection, snuffing Australia's challenge in a typically convincing fashion.)

The change in India's leadership, about which the scribes and the experts could be heard hollering for some months, seemed to have made no immediate impact--not that India was pre-tournament choice to net the Cup. It is with the familiar dubious aspect that they land in Toronto--the unfortunate thing about it all for them being that there are only two teams expected to play for the prize, significantly cutting chances of India's poor shows being overlooked. I mean, it's difficult to not notice that one of the two teams in the contest is being mauled rather uncompromisingly.

Forgive me if I sound disparaging but I just don't see how my comrades are going to pull off the caper. Man for man, the Pakistanis have a more gifted outfit, that starts with their openers: Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail. Anwar goes about his vocation with a homicidal ardor that, if displayed outside of the cricket field, would no doubt result in his being hauled before a magistrate. The Poms are still chafing from his recent escapades and when word of his departure spread, all of England celebrated. In Sohail he has an assistant who, although equally barbaric, has, off late,the deportment of one who has been neutered. Well, no surprise there, considering he came darned close: His dismissal during the World Cup quarter final against India--a result of a rather fat-headed attempt to hit the ball into an area that he he couldn't possibly have but did anyway since he had taken it upon self to, moments earlier, sidle down the wicket and indicate to the bowler where his next delivery was headed--knocked the wind out of Pakistan's challenge and they snatched an improbable defeat. On a day that saw Wasim pull out of the debate somewhat furtively, Sohail's wantonness was seen in Karachi and other adjoining areas, as sufficient cause for the acting captain to be burnt at the stake. Somehow, he managed to halt proceedings along such lines and has, through a series of stolid presentations in the British Isles, redeemed his standing with his countrymen. The Sohail of today, therefore, is a subdued individual, who contents himself admirably, from his vantage point at the non-striker's end, through Anwar's dismantling of new ball attacks. Between them, they retain thirteen OD 100's; Anwar leading the gamut 8 to 5. Following the toppling of either is Ijaz Ahmed, a modern enigma if there ever was one. His footing in the side has never been on steady ground--owing mostly to his inability in the past to string together an agreeable number of substantial knocks. Topping the averages against the English is never a proof of the pudding. Nevertheless, in the eyes of those who hand out the weekly envelope, he has rallied around nicely and with 4 big ones on his resume, his wicket has become rather sought after in recent matches. Inzamam-ul-Haq, having never dialed 1-800-852-Jenny, is still ponderous and if he gets away with those ambles up and down the strip, there is very little one can do to prise him out. Once likened by Imran Khan to Sachin, he has yet to realize his full potential, but if coaxed expertly by the administrators to give his all for five games against the rival, he can come out smoking. Shadab Kabir is the new kid in town, and being of a flashy disposition, raises enough confidence in the opposition. His wicket, if India screw it to the sticking point, should not be too difficult to obtain. Salim Malik evokes comparisons to Mohammad Azharuddin--both are dazzling strokers of the leather, and when in the right frame of mind can reel off runs sneakily. Like Azhar, Salim has a tendency to take off from work earlier than is kosher and the Indian camp would be following his every move with interest. All said, the Pakistani top order appears more illustrious--26 OD 100's for the first five, in any manner one dices it, is grand.

India, and there are no two ways about this, are arched heavily on Sachin's prowess. If he gets off the blocks nicely, the day ends well for his side. But, when he blunders, his mates mire themselves in a stew--it's there for all to see. Tendulkar has come a long way from the days when he was under the misconception that he had to declare his wicket immediately upon completion of 50 runs. Nowadays, he hangs around for longer and by doing so, his strike rate automatically adds a hint of respectability to the total.

For Azharuddin, leading India was a job description fraught with infinite head aches. At the time of writing, he no longer has to make excuses for his bowlers getting gutted. He has also stopped glancing over his shoulder. The worst has come and gone, and although his follicles might not return, the toothy grin is back. Relinquishing the captaincy has often been a touchy affair for many a skipper from the sub-continent--Gavaskar, Dev, Shrikanth, Vengsarkar, and Shastri, at various stages during the last decade, were sore as gum-boils after been advised they couldn't flip the coin any more. Azhar has given leadership transitions a whole new aura. Like one of his whips to fine leg, he has deposited his stamp of class over the deal. For him, India-Pakistan ties are never easy on the mind. Inevitably before such games he gets grotesque calls from shady individuals. Somehow, his being a Muslim, makes it necessary for the dregs of society to remind him of his fidelity--it's all confusing and distressing. This tour uncorks some of the pressure and should Tendulkar's fall leave them in a crisis, Azhar is the one with the life-jackets and the tubes.

Saurav Ganguly (baptized "the Bengali Bradman" by those who know little) has stirred me to the point that I now believe the lad has good stuff in him. Kambli is one bird I have great difficulty in fathoming. Having watched him play from close quarters, I can assure you he is a solid little guy. I am not in agreement with his habit of getting body regions pierced, and creating mild panics in hotel rooms at mid-night--I won't bring up his getting plastered to the gills and screaming off-colored stuff--but I am with him right up to the point he starts getting weird. Vinod takes his "Demolition Man" image to inauspicious distances at times; still, when sober-- and India would wish for five of those moments to coincide with the match days, he can be a handful. A little iffy early on, but, thoroughly enjoyable once the ether wears off. Then, there is Ajay Jadeja, every bit an Azhar wannabe when he started out, with the result that although the strokes looked like the Hyderabadi's, the outcomes were quite different. Recently, he has cut out a lot of the looks-good-but-can't-beat-square stuff and is playing straighter and smarter. Some of his hits off Waqar in Bangalore had the Pakistani seeing double.

Bowling is a department in which the Indians have, traditionally, chanced it on empty. Ever since Dev and Prabhakar stopped showing up, there has been a steady drip of new faces. Javagal Srinath and BKV Prasad form the nucleus of what, by any stretch of the imagination, is not a nuclear bowling side. I like Srinath's chances; he thinks a lot more than BKV, whose kind-hearted pace and slovenly line should speak to Anwar's most carnal instincts.

I remember the last time Anil Kumble turned the ball: it was in the Hero Cup finals, 1994, against the Caribbeans, on an Eden Gardens wicket so lamentable, it was dug, somewhat questionable this, a day before ICC inspectors, warming up to some post-match complaints, dropped in to have a dekko. So, and this is for the unacquainted, when you see him on the screen and the caption says "Right Arm/Leg-Spin", it simply means they didn't have a placard that read,"Right Arm/We Aren't Sure". Now the Veecee, Kumble still occupies a place in the Top Ten rankings, although having done little of notice in recent outings, look for both his stripes and the ranking to be scrapped at the end of the season.
Once you get past these three, India is suddenly on reserve, which against a Pakistan squad on song could only result in a receding hairline for Master Tendulkar.

Pakistan has no such worries--its premier pair of warheads, the two Ws, have had a wicked season thus far. So has Atta-ur-Rehman. Mushtaq Ahmed's--now there is a man who has no reservations about turning the ball, or anything vaguely round, square--jousts with the likes of Azhar and Tendulkar would make for high quality viewing.

It is said a suave captain can override the most difficult of situations. The next seven days promise their fair share of d.s. Rarely has a contest between the two shown men on either side at their unsullied best. Azhar, and I have a feeling this comes naturally to him, was outstanding in terms of scattering the tension--his innocuous banters in Urdu would often result in smiles on the Pakistani dials. Wasim is a grim bloke and is not known to be inhibited in his utilization of fruity dialects. It would be nice if either team does not consider the securing of the Friendship Cup to be the ultimate goal. It is more important that ties between the factions be strengthened and if the skippers succeed in that aspect, this would be a contest well worth the effort.

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