Sanjay Manjrekar recalls anti-India slogans in Karachi that led to 'full-blown scuffle' during 1989-90 tour of Pakistan

The 1989-90 tour of Pakistan occupies a special place in Indian cricket history. It was in this tour, after all, in which a 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar announced himself before the world. Tendulkar incidentally, wasn’t the only legendary cricketer making his debut in the tour – which comprised four Tests and three ODIs; pace icon Waqar Younis had also debuted alongside Tendulkar as well as India’s Salil Ankola and Pakistan’s Shahid Saeed.

Manjrekar recalls ‘surreal’ incident at Karachi’s National Stadium

It wasn’t just Tendulkar and Waqar’s debuts that were the talking points from the series opener at Karachi’s National Stadium. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, who had scored an unbeaten 113 during the visitors’ chase of the 453-run target set by the hosts, recalled anti-India slogans at the venue that led to a full-blown brawl.

“During a match in Karachi, I was at mid-off when suddenly a man in local attire walked onto the field, shouting anti-India slogans. Before we could react, he charged straight at our captain, Krishnamachari Srikkanth,” Manjrekar said on The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan.

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“What followed was surreal. A full-blown scuffle in the middle of a Test match! Srikkanth fought back, his shirt buttons ripped and the game stopped as security scrambled to intervene,” he added.

Cricketer-turned-commentator Manjrekar further revealed that it wasn’t just Srikkanth who was involved in the scuffle, with wicketkeeper Kiran More joining in.

“The funniest part? Kiran More jumped in to defend his captain and started kicking the intruder with his pads still on! It was chaos, like a street fight on a cricket pitch,” he added.

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While the four-match Test series had ended in a 0-0 draw, Pakistan won the four-match ODI series 2-0 in which one game was abandoned without a ball bowled while another had ended in a No Result.

The two arch-rivals would not face each other in a Test series for a decade until Pakistan visited India in early 1999.