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“It felt like I was playing in Pakistan,” Azad recalls, in a candid conversation with .

He was, of course, not in Pakistan. The Chinar leaves had already begun their slow combustion into amber and rust. Beyond the ropes, the Dal Lake lay unperturbed, its surface gilded by a low autumn sun. In that autumnal hush, cricket arrived at what Amir Khusrow called firdaus, paradise itself. It was, unmistakably so, India. Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir stadium, where, Thursday onwards, India’s domestic red-ball champions, Jammu & Kashmir, will face Rest of India for the Irani Cup.

The Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar hosted its first-ever game just three months after India’s 1983 World Cup triumph.

October 13, 1983 also fell on a Thursday. India had travelled to Srinagar for the ground’s maiden international fixture, against the very Goliaths they had slain at Lord’s: Clive Lloyd’s West Indies.

The valley, on the eve of battle, had offered its visitors every courtesy its hospitality could muster. So did its foremost representative, Farooq Abdullah, then Chief Minister of the state, who had welcomed the teams to a feast of the local delicacy, Wazwan.

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“I remember Mr Farooq Abdullah had made lovely arrangements. The Sher-i-Kashmir stadium is one of the most picturesque grounds I have played at. It felt as if we were back in England, playing one of those club matches with trees all around, small stands, and a beautiful little pavilion. The atmosphere was brilliant. That image is still etched in my memory. It was a day I would remember very fondly, until…,” Azad says.

A momentary pause. Then, the caveat.

“…they dug up the pitch.”

Twelve men were arrested for digging the pitch while the players had gone for lunch. Among them were Showkat Bakshi and Shabir Shah, names that would, in time, come to occupy a prominent place in the story of Kashmiri separatism. It would take until 2011 for a court to acquit all twelve, citing lack of evidence.

A comprehensive causation report for the cumulative act, the abuse hurled, the slogans raised, the pitch vandalised, lies beyond the remit of this piece. Suffice it to say that a section of the crowd had chosen a cricket match as its stage to voice a pro-plebiscite sentiment.

Dilip Vengsarkar, in a career spanning 245 international appearances, has had many blemishes. None of his ducks, however, sting quite like the memory of that match.

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“It was the most forgettable match of my career,” he tells this masthead. “I don’t have fond memories of that game because what we expected, that the crowd would come in numbers to cheer for the Indian team, was totally different to what actually happened. The crowd was against India. They were shouting anti-Indian slogans and displaying placards against the Indian players. They were backing the West Indies throughout.”

Eight years deep into an already distinguished career, the elegant batter had enough experience to foresee most things. This, he did not.

“We didn’t know about it at all. When we went onto the ground the previous day, the atmosphere was completely different as compared to what we experienced during the match. We had no idea that something like this would happen. And mind you, it was just after the World Cup, so that team was the historic team of ’83.”

In his book Runs ‘n Ruins, Sunil Gavaskar explained his surprise through words: “There were many in the crowd shouting pro-Pakistan slogans which confounded us, because we were playing the West Indies and not Pakistan.”

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Rishabh Pant will lead the Rest of India side in the Irani Cup against J&K in Srinagar, starting Thursday. (CREIMAS)

Michael Holding’s recollection paints much the same picture. “There were a lot of Pakistani flags in the stands and not many people were cheering for India. I don’t even remember the result or who played in it. But there was a lot of shouting of Imran Khan’s name, as people showed they were not supporting India,” he tells .

He had dismissed Kapil Dev in the game. The tour was billed as the “Revenge Series”, and West Indies served revenge cold, in the cold of Kashmir: India were bowled out for 176, and the visitors were 108/0 in 22.4 overs before a dust storm intervened, with West Indies already having done enough for the win. By then, though, the storm on the field had long been eclipsed by the one raging inside the stands.

“One or two of us went out, not outside the ground, but from the pavilion we could see that they were digging up the pitch. Then the Army came in and arrested those people. They quickly packed our kit bags and hurried us back to the hotel in an armoured vehicle. From there, if my memory serves me right, we travelled back by an Army transport plane. The official news (of the protest) came much later to us, but we had an inkling that something had gone wrong. I mean, why would anybody dig up a cricket pitch?” Azad says.

Madan Lal, who also was a part of the game, offers his version to this newspaper. “I remember there was a lot of shouting. There was huge commotion. I had not gone out to see what was happening, but we were told to leave the premises and were escorted back to our hotel. All of us were shocked, because we were all very enthusiastic about the game. Apart from that one section, the crowd was lovely too. Even the organisers did not foresee such a melee.”

***

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Forty-three years hence, the scenario has changed. Some scars remain. When Balwinder Sandhu was asked to recall the match by this newspaper, he could only offer: “I don’t remember the cricket from that match, because it was only about politics.”

When Rishabh Pant leads the Rest of India team on to the ground on Thursday, however, he will have the luxury of thinking only about cricket. As Vengsarkar says: “The atmosphere has changed completely. It’s (Srinagar) much calmer now. Much nicer.”

In Srinagar, in Jammu & Kashmir, let there, at last, be peace.