"KOLKATA 1999". Biggest match of the history of cricket. When 100,000 Indians people turned against "SHOAIB AKHTAR".

 100,000 Indian cricket fans agitated over Sachin Tendulkar being declared run call at the third Test against Pakistan at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in 1999, a concerned Sunil Gavaskar visited the Pakistani room to plead that the Indian batting maestro should be called back by Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram who "would become a hero in India for the remainder of his life".But Akram wasn't persuaded, Tendulkar wasn't called back to the wicket, rioting erupted within the packed stadium resulting in the day's play being called off and therefore the match completed subsequent day before an empty stadium.

The story of Gavaskar's pleadings for the sake of Indo-Pak harmony is disclosed by Pakistan Cricket Board chief Shaharyar Khan during a just-released book focussing on his team's tour of India in 1999. He was the manager of the team then."I remember Sunil Gavaskar coming over and pleading that for the sake of inter-State harmony, (skipper) Wasim Akram should call Tendulkar back. He (Akram) would become a hero in India for the remainder of his life," Shaharyar writes in 'Cricket -- A Bridge of Peace'.

Besides Gavaskar, his "British cricketing friend" Mark Williams sent a note saying Tendulkar should be called back within the interest of inter-State relations while "neutral cricket professionals" like Ian Chappell and Michael Holding felt that the choice should be left to Match-referee Cammie Smith.A piquant situation arose when Tendulkar, who had started off well against Shoaib, played a wristy stroke to the mid-wicket boundary. 

He completed two runs and scrambled to the crease for the third but stumbled after colliding with Shoaib when a throw from the deep hit the stumps.

Tendulkar was given out by umpires after watching replays, a choice which irked the Eden Gardens crowd immensely.Even as the gang erupted in anger, the Pakistani room was "inundated" with commentators, officials and journalists offering advice on on the way to meet the crisis.

"What made the difficulty even more poignant was that Indian Prime Minister A B Vajpayee was in Lahore for the historic meeting together with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. it had been the maximum amount a cricketing incident as a diplomatic one and everybody appeared to address me to save lots of things during a diplomatic way," writes the PCB chief who was accompanying the team as manager then.

As the tension mounted, PCB Chief Khalid Mahmood held a fast meeting with coach Javed Miandad, Akram, Board Secretary Waqar Akram and Shaharyar."I realised this was one the foremost diplomatic decisions I had ever been required to require," Shaharyar writes adding he advised the Board to stay to the choice of the neutral umpires which was accepted.

After reviewing the footage, the three umpires were unanimous that though "highly regrettable", Shoaib's colliding with Tendulkar was an accident and in no way deliberate.Following the umpires' decision, a "reluctant" Tendulkar was persuaded by BCCI Chief Jagmohan Dalmiya to travel around the ground to plead with the gang to let the sport continue.Shaharyar says after analysing the video footage, he also felt that the collision between Shoaib and Tendulkar was accidental. Gavaskar, however, contended that Tendulkar had actually grounded his bat before the ball hit the stumps and thus had made his ground, before he was knocked back."The TV replays didn't confirm this view and indicated the ball had hit the stumps while Tedulkar's bat was still within the air. Purely in cricketing terms, he was out," he writes."It was simply a bizarre incident and therefore the collision totally accidental. it had been even more singular that it should happen to India's best batsman who had probably assail winning this Test for India with the memory of nearly failing to try to to so in Chennai."Amazingly the incident happened at a critical stage of the sport when it could have happened to the other, less crucial batsman or at smaller stage of the sport." Writing about an equivalent Test, Shaharyar says on the fifth day trouble erupted again when India lost all the most wickets with only the last pair left to debar defeat. The umpires had to interrupt play after crowd started throwing missiles."As the disconsolate players trooped back to the pavilion, Wasim and therefore the team wanted the match to be declared a win for Pakistan.

  visited Cammie Smith who said he had no authority to declare a win and will only abandon the match.At now, Dalmiya courageously stepped in and offered to clear the bottom to resume play without spectators. Subsequently the gang was cleared, "surprisingly" without much resistance and Pakistan won the match by 46 runs.Reflecting on this incident later within the book, Shaharyar wonders whether crowd trouble had anything to try to to with betting.He says probably some people had "bet on heavily" on an Indian victory as they allowed "play to continue smoothly till after Tendulkar's run out incident because 57 runs with 4 wickets in hand was a gettable target. They only erupted with missiles and bottles when the last pair was in and victory virtually out of sight."Better a no result than betting loss over a defeat? Why did the notoriously volatile Calcutta crowd so meekly exit the stadium at police instance? Was it due to its anger at the run out wasn't the important issue but the loss of a bet which could are salvaged with an abandoned tie," Shaharyar wonders.On an equivalent tour, Shaharyar says some still maintain that the last one-day match played at Mohali was fixed "but when the bet became public knowledge, the betting mafia decided to reverse the result at the last minute." However, he writes that the Pakistan tour of India was overall free from match fixing. "I sill maintain that the Pakistan team touring India was free thereon tour of any suggestion of match fixing because national honour was at stake".