Multan, the city of saints and shrines, that has witnessed the passage of many conquerors and dynasties, also has a rich culture of both traditional and modern sports. It has produced some fine cricketers and boasts of two arenas that have hosted Test matches.
Ibn-e-Qasim Bagh Stadium
The Ibn e Qasim Bagh Stadium is named in honour of the memory of the Umayyad general Muhammad Bin Qasim who had conquered Sind and parts of the Multan region along the River Indus in the early part of the 8th century. At times it is also referred to as the Qila Kohna Qasim Bagh Stadium or simply remembered by its original name of the Old Fort Stadium. It is a medium sized stadium with a capacity for 18,000 spectators.
Initially it was a multipurpose stadium and in the 1950s and ’60s it staged occasional cricket matches but functioned mainly as a regular venue for football games and tournaments, including the Ismail Gold Shield Football Tournament and the All Pakistan National Soccer Meet. In addition to its role as a sporting arena the stadium was, and continues to be, a popular and much used site for political rallies staged by both government and opposition parties.
The initial first class cricket match played here was between the touring MCC A side and a combined Railways and Balochistan team in March 1956, which the visitors won comfortably. In March 1968 the ground hosted an international match between a visiting Commonwealth Eleven led by Tony Lewis and a BCCP Eleven led by Hanif Mohammad that was essentially a national strength side.
The stadium also witnessed an Under-19 International between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in April 1974. The Pakistan Under-19 lineup included future Test stars like Javed Miandad, Mudassar Nazar, Qasim Umar and Azhar Khan.
Ibn e Qasim Bagh Stadium’s solitary Test match was held in December 1980. The occasion was the final Test of a four Test series between Pakistan and the West Indies.
The match began on the wrong footing as its start was delayed by the late arrival of an umpire. Clive Lloyd, who was captaining the West Indies side for the 42nd time, thus overtaking Peter May’s record of 41 Tests, won the toss and elected to bat. West Indies labored to score 249 in 93 overs on a worn pitch. Their innings was centred around a focused six hour stint from Viv Richards whose knock of 120 was his first century against Pakistan. Imran bowling with sustained pace and hostility took 5 wickets for 62 runs from 22 overs.
Pakistan managed only 166 runs in reply, despite a 100 run partnership for the third wicket between Majid Khan and Javed Miandad, who was leading the Pakistan side. All 10 Pakistani wickets fell to the fearsome West Indian pace quartet of Sylvester Clarke, Colin Croft, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall.
The second day’s play was marred by an unsavory incident. The crowd had been tossing fruits and orange peels at the fielding West Indian players. An orange struck Sylvester Clarke, who in a moment of blind rage picked up a brick that was used to mark the boundary and threw it angrily at the crowd, hitting a 22 year old student named Shafiq Ahmed on the head. Shafiq was rushed to the hospital and required emergency surgery.
Not surprisingly the match was held up and resumed after a 25 minute break during which Alvin Kallicharan went down on a bent knee to plead for calm and to placate the crowd. Clarke and the West Indian manager Jackie Hendricks subsequently visited Shafiq in the hospital to inquire about his welfare and to apologize for the incident.
On the ground, by the end of the third day the West Indies had struggled to 85 for 5 in their second innings. A bare 40 minutes of play was possible on the fourth morning before rain intervened with the West Indies on 116 for 5. The fifth day’s play was totally washed out due to rain, leaving the match drawn.
The Ibn e Qasim Bagh Stadium continued to be used as a venue for first class cricket and even ODIs well into the 1990’s but its tenure as a Test ground ceased with the solitary encounter versus the West Indies. It now continues to thrive as a major football stadium that also holds occasional political gatherings and rallies.
Multan Cricket Stadium
The Multan Cricket Stadium was inaugurated in 2001. It was built to replace the Ibn e Qasim Bagh Stadium whose limited capacity was inadequate to accommodate the large crowds that turned up to watch Test matches in Multan.
This picturesque ground, with one of the greenest outfields in the country, has a capacity of well over 30,000 which makes it the second most commodious cricketing arena in Pakistan after the National Stadium in Karachi. The stadium is elliptical or oval in shape and the side boundaries of the ground, square off the wicket on either side, are around 60 metres in length, while the straight boundaries of the stadium are much longer, measuring 75-90 metres each from the pitch. Equipped with floodlights it can stage day/night matches as well, which is becoming a necessary feature of modern grounds desirous of hosting international cricket.
The first Test to be played at the Multan Cricket Stadium was in 2001 against Bangladesh and was part of the Asian Test Championship of 2001-02. Pakistan cantered to an easy victory by an innings and 264 runs. The highlights included 5 centuries in Pakistan’s score of 546 for 3 declared and superb bowling by Danish Kaneria who took 6 wickets in each innings to finish with match figures of 12 for 94. The Pakistan opening pair for this encounter was Saeed Anwar and Taufeeq Umar and this Test marked the first occasion in Test cricket history when two left handed openers both made centuries in the same innings. The match was also Saeed Anwar’s last Test outing and he became the first, and so far the only, Pakistani batsman to end his Test career with a hundred. This Test was, however, tinged with a note of immense sadness for Saeed as it was during this match that his daughter Bismah passed away after a long illness.
The next Test at this stadium was also against Bangladesh in September 2003, and this match took an entirely different course. Bangladesh opened with a score of 281 in their first innings and then dismissed Pakistan for just 175, to secure a first innings lead of 106. In their second knock they made 154 and set Pakistan a target of 261 for victory. There was a controversial decision in the visitors second innings. When Bangladesh were on 91 for 5, the Pakistani captain and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif dived to take a catch and appealed for a dismissal. The umpire upheld the appeal but TV replays showed that the ball had clearly been grounded before it went into the keeper’s gloves.
In pursuit of the winning target of 261, Pakistan tottered at 99 for 5. The only batsman of any repute still left was Inzamam ul Haq who was playing on his home ground. Soon Pakistan were 132 for 6 and then 164 for 7. Inzamam playing one of the best and most responsible innings of his career shepherded the team to 257 for 9, with 93 runs being added for the 8th and 9th wickets, of which Inzamam scored more than 70. In an interesting addendum, the last batsman to join Inzamam at the wicket was the teenager Yasir Ali who was not only playing his first Test but was surprisingly also making his first class debut. Inzamam sealed the win with a boundary giving Pakistan victory by the narrowest of margins.
The third match on this ground was against India in March 2004 and is remembered for a scintillating triple century by Virender Sehwag which enabled India to triumph by an innings and 52 runs. The ground also witnessed a sublime double century from Brian Lara in November 2006 in a drawn match in which Mohammad Yousuf also scored 56 and 191 in the two innings to continue the rich vein of form in what was his halcyon year, when he established new records for the highest number of runs and centuries scored in Test matches in a calendar year.
Following this match there was a long hiatus of nearly 16 years before the next Test was held at this stadium. This was the period in which teams were reluctant to tour Pakistan for security reasons.
In November 2022 England toured and won a closely contested Test here by just 26 runs. This game was Multan’s first experience of watching ‘Bazball’ and also marked a very successful Test debut by a new mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed who took 7 wickets for 114 in England’s first innings.
In a very unusual sequence of events, Multan staged 4 Tests in a brief, hectic period of under 4 months, from October 2024 to January 2025.
England had enjoyed a very successful tour of Pakistan in 2022 when they had overwhelmed the host team 3-0, and they were now back, confident of a repeat performance. In the first match of this 3 Test series Pakistan batted after winning the toss and posted a big score of 556 scored at a healthy rate of 3.73 runs per over. England responded with a mammoth 823 for 7 declared, including a huge 454 run stand for the 4th wicket between Joe Root who made 262 and Harry Brooke who compiled 317. Trailing by 267 runs in the first innings Pakistan folded for 220, handing England a 47 run innings win. The unthinkable had happened. Pakistan became the first side in cricket history to lose by an innings after running up a score of more than 500 in their first knock.
The match forced much soul searching in the Pakistan think tank. This defeat marked a run of 6 successive Test match losses. Their much vaunted pace attack had failed to deliver. Only once in these 6 Tests had the Pakistan bowlers managed to take all 20 opposition wickets. Pakistan, therefore, decided to opt for a radically different approach. Due to the ongoing renovation work at the National Stadium Karachi, the second Test was also staged at Multan, with just a 3 day break after the first one. Pakistan took the unprecedented step of re-using the same strip on which the first Test had been played, thus essentially converting the opening day wicket into a sixth day pitch. To take advantage of a worn strip they packed the side with three spinners to replace their pacemen. It was a big gamble and an untested one.
Winning the toss, Pakistan ran up a total of 366 and then their spinners got to work. The same England side that had compiled a score of 800 plus just a week or so ago were dismissed for 291. Pakistan led by 75 runs and a second innings score of 221 set England a target of 297. England had no answer to Pakistan’s spinners and crumbled to 144 all out and a comprehensive defeat by 152 runs. All 20 English wickets fell to Pakistan’s spinning duet of Noman Ali and Sajid Khan. Pakistan’s gamble had paid off.
Following the success of their master plan against England, Pakistan deployed it again when playing the West Indies a few months later in January 2025. In the first Test at Multan, the West Indies could manage a combined total of 260 runs in their two innings, with all 20 wickets again falling to spinners. Pakistan ran out easy winners by 127 runs. In the second Test, which was also staged at Multan a week later, Pakistan’s plan to produce spin friendly wickets ran into problems. First they let West Indies off the hook when they were 95 for 8 in their first innings and then their own batsmen inexplicably struggled against an inexperienced West Indian spin attack. As the West Indian batsmen grew more confident against the Pakistani spinners in their second knock, the home team’s batting line-up looked totally inept and shorn of self belief and disintegrated to 133 all out when chasing a target of 254.
Pakistan has so far played a total of 10 Test matches at this ground, winning 5, losing 4 and drawing just one.
The highest team innings at this stadium is 823 for 7 declared by England in October 2024, while the lowest team score here is 123 by the West Indies in January 2025.
The highest successful run chase at this arena is Pakistan’s 262 for 9 against Bangladesh in September 2003. The highest partnership recorded at this venue is the 454 runs stand for the 4th wicket between Joe Root and Harry Brook in October 2024. This stand took just 518 balls and was made at the rate of 5.3 runs per over.
The ground has seen 21 Test centuries including 2 triple hundreds and 2 double hundreds. The highest individual innings is 317 by Harry Brook for England in October 2024.
The most successful batsman at the ground is Mohammad Yousuf with 517 runs at an average of 86.17. Yousuf’s 3 centuries are also a record for this stadium.
The best bowling performance in an innings at the Multan Cricket Stadium is 8 wickets for 46 runs by Noman Ali versus England in October 2024. There are 14 instances of bowlers taking 5 wickets or more in an innings with Noman Ali and Danish Kaneria reaching this landmark on three occasions each. The best bowling performance in an entire Test is 12 wickets for 94 runs by Danish Kaneria against Bangladesh in 2001. On 5 occasions bowlers have taken 10 wickets or more in a Test, with Noman Ali having done so twice.
The most successful bowler at the Multan Cricket Stadium is Noman Ali who has taken 27 wickets in just 3 Tests at the miserly average of 12.93. Other bowlers to have taken over 20 Test wickets here are Sajid Khan with 24 and Danish Kaneria with 22.
The highest number of wicket keeping dismissals in a Test innings at the Multan Cricket Stadium is 4. This record is jointly held by Rashid Latif against Bangladesh in September 2003, and Tevin Imlach for the West Indies in January 2025. The highest wicket keeping tally for an entire Test match is Rashid Latif’s 7 in the 2003 match against Bangladesh. Marcus Trescothick of England holds the best mark for a fielder with 4 catches in the Test here in November 2006.
Apart from its status as a Test ground the Multan Cricket Stadium is also the home ground of the T20 franchise cricket team, the Multan Sultans, and a major venue for PSL (Pakistan Super League) matches. It has a bright future as one of the premier hubs for both national and international cricket in Pakistan.
Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books. salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com
