Srinagar so far has hosted only two international cricket matches in its history – first in 1983 and another in 1986, after which the region plunged into chaos as militancy erupted in 1989
Coming Wednesday, the Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar will come alive with the fame of Legends League Cricket (LLC), something which is happening in the strife-torn Kashmir valley after 38 years.
Srinagar so far has hosted only two international cricket matches in its history – first in 1983 and another in 1986, after which the region plunged into chaos as militancy erupted in 1989.
Now, the city will be hosting seven back-to-back cricket matches from October 9 in the last leg of LLC– a T-20 cricket league that includes recently retired cricketing greats and has become famous on the likes of the Indian premiere League. Six teams with 124 players, including the likes of Chris Gayle, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Martin Guptil, Ross Taylor and Ian Bell, will converge in the picturesque valley.
“For the past 40 years, top-quality international cricket has not happened here. So that was the idea. I spoke to the cricketers and they were excited for LLC,” said Raman Raheja, CEO and co-founder of the league, in a Zoom interview.
The first international cricket match in Kashmir between India and the West Indies was held in Sher-I-Kashmir Stadium in October 1983 and the second between India and Australia in September 1986. Both were lost by India.
“The intent is to bring cricketers from more than 20 countries to the Valley and that is going to be historical,” he said.
The 1983 match had witnessed a lot of drama after police had booked 17 people accused of digging the pitch, some of whom later went on to become the top commanders of militancy after armed insurgency erupted in the state in 1989. The prominent included Showkat Bakshi (former district commander of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front), Mushtaq-ul-Islam (former commander of Hizbullah), and moderate separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah.
The league is currently playing its matches in Jammu, where it had started to hold matches from last year.
Ravi Shastri, former India player who is the commissioner of the league, while in Jammu reminisced of his 1986 match played in Srinagar. “I had come to play for India in 1986 against Australia in Srinagar. After that, there was no international game. Coming here and seeing the interest of people. The opportunity which the youngsters are getting to see the legends, that will help them a lot,” he said.
The matches are happening in an improved situation in Kashmir Valley with a substantial decline in law and order incidents and an increase in tourist arrivals in the past two years.
Raheja said when they had floated the idea of coming to Kashmir last year, there were some concerns among the international players.
“The improved situation in Kashmir has helped because we have international cricketers and they read about the situation in the region. So they were asking questions last year when we were planning in Jammu. When we went to Jammu, they realised it was very nice and all security measures were taken. So some even asked last year to take it to Kashmir but unfortunately, time was less,” he said.
He said they had done all planning in advance this year. “They are all coming well prepared and looking forward to having a good time. Some of them are even bringing their families,” he said, stressing that he has himself witnessed the Kashmir hospitality in the past 12 years.
Final match on October 16
In Srinagar, the LLC’s final leg will witness three league matches, three eliminators or qualifiers and the final on October 16. Talking about the LLC, Raheja said the idea came in 2022 after witnessing people retire from cricket but still have the potential to play.
“We are a country of over 70 crore cricket followers and we have all grown up seeing heroes play for the country or some IPL teams. We hate to see them retire. We saw that those cricketers who were playing in the final team still had 4 to 5 years of cricket left in them. We saw this as a kind of opportunity. That is why we put it in a format where cricketers of similar stature can come together and play competitive cricket,” he said.
He said after the first edition in Eden Garden in 2022, they realised that the fans in smaller cities were much hungrier. “ We started with Eden Garden in 2022 but we found that in smaller cities fans were hungry for cricket. And these legends bring in a lot of legacy and they are inspirational figures. We decided that if we were able to take legends cricket to smaller towns, we had two things – one the hunger of fans by satisfying them with top quality international cricket and two inspiring the youngsters and middle-aged,” he added.
