<\/p>\n
O<\/span>n 30 June 1986 the Yorkshire Post <\/em>printed an invitation to a pre-match reception at the Majestic hotel. \u201cMeet cricket club celebrities,\u201d <\/em>the invite read. \u201cAuction, \u00a310 (including buffet).\u201d <\/em>But these were not just any old cricket celebrities, this was India and Pakistan, led by Kapil Dev and Imran Khan, due to meet for only the second time on British soil at the genteel English town of Harrogate.<\/p>\n This unlikely match, a 40-over bish-bash fundraiser for Help the Aged, had been encouraged by the cricketing bigwigs of both nations. India were already in situ on an England tour, while the Pakistan ambassador, Ali Arshad, was in charge of pulling together a team, flying five players over specially.<\/p>\n It was a breathtaking lineup \u2013 Khan, Abdul Qadir, Wasim Akram, Ramiz Raja, Dev, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Dileep Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin \u2013 plus a few lesser-known players to fill in the gaps. Interest in the game was huge \u2013 far beyond anything anyone in Yorkshire had contemplated \u2013 and an estimated 15,000 spectators landed on Harrogate that overcast morning of 15 July 1986.<\/p>\n Kamran Abbasi, then 17, went along with his uncle Ishtiaq, and later wrote about it for Wisden Asia Cricket<\/a>, an English-language cricket magazine produced in India. Even now, 40 years on, the memories are vivid. \u201cThere was no chance then of seeing these guys play, there was no Sky, you had<\/em> to be there. I remember the road to Harrogate was a single lane country road and it was crawling almost from Leeds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was absolutely crazy. They had to bring the boundary in as there were so many people there, the ticketing system evaporated and it was utter mayhem. It was played like a World Cup final \u2013 at least in the crowd\u2019s eyes \u2013 everyone was so emotional, people were roaring, waving flags. People were so passionate about their teams, at that time almost no immigrants would have supported England.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople behaved badly, it was really embarrassing, tribal, my uncle hated it but I loved it. There were pitch invasions after every wicket, or even when there wasn\u2019t a wicket.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the Tannoy they kept telling people to stay off the playing area, well, we were already on the playing area. It definitely would not pass a risk assessment today.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Whiteley was in charge of the catering for the day. \u201cWhen I arrived on the ground at about 4am, to prepare the tavern for the day\u2019s excitement, there were already people climbing over walls and rushing to bag the best seats. The Leeds Road end of town was bought to a halt as cars were abandoned on the approaches to town all the way down to Spacey Houses, and the ground was at capacity long before the start of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n He picked up \u201chalal chickens the size of pigeons\u201d from the Shabab restaurant for the players but \u201con the day, they were unwilling to leave their changing rooms and ate food taken to them by the various vendors who popped up all over the place\u201d.<\/p>\n Drink was another stab in the dark. \u201cNot knowing in advance what the beer sales would be like we tried to get a sale-or-return deal from Tetley\u2019s brewery. They were reluctant to provide draught beer on that basis but instead provided 250 cases of cans of bitter and 250 cases of cans of lager. I well remember the joy on the faces of the draymen who were being paid a piece rate as they picked up 249 cases of bitter and 249 cases of lager. The crowd that day were either teetotal, came prepared with their own refreshments or bought from the dozens of illicit street vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n Whitely remembers ticket applications coming from the United States, the Gulf, India and Pakistan as well as from all over the UK. Incredibly: \u201cThe prime minster, Margaret Thatcher, also sent a letter of support.\u201d<\/p>\n David Hopps, later of the Guardian<\/a> but then of the Yorkshire Post, was sent to cover it, much to his annoyance, as he was due a long-booked and rare day off for a family party. A colleague remembers him complaining that only \u201cone man and a dog\u201d would turn up. But a day later he was a man transformed, reporting that Harrogate \u201cwould never be quite the same again after hosting an exhilarating one-day international\u201d at a ground ready to \u201cburst at the seams with excitement\u201d.<\/p>\n
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