India's desert woes: Revisiting shadowy Sharjah

#1 Murky, but inconclusive

In 2001, the BBC cricket correspondent, Jonathan Agnew said, "I would swear under oath that two of the dozen or so matches I have witnessed on that desert ground over the years were fixed: both of them by Pakistan."

Dr Narottam Puri, former Doordarshan commentator can be heard on tape clearly saying that he was asked to bet, by a friend, while in Sharjah. He refused but the friend told him he had inside information about what was to happen the next day during a West Indies vs Pakistan encounter. Flabbergasted indeed, was Dr Puri when he discovered that the statements were true.

These sensational revelations, along with those from Aamir Sohail (among others) have cast a shadow of doubt on how authentic the matches in the desert stadium were and if cricket fans were being fooled into believing that the matches which they emoted over were actually stage-managed behind the scenes.

An inquiry into allegations levelled against Sharjah cricket conducted by Clive Lloyd's panel concluded that due to insufficient evidence the inquiry had to be shut down and that the panel failed to substantiate the claims that came out of the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation's report.

For cricket fans in India, Pakistan, in the Gulf and around the world who experienced agony and ecstasy watching these matches, one hopes that the truth may be one day be told.

There is (or was) a graveyard outside the Sharjah cricket stadium, writes Sanjay Manjrekar in his book Imperfect. In the hearts and minds of Indian cricket fans, the ghost of Sharjah still looms large, lurking in the shadows of an empty Sharjah cricket stadium.