Dennis the menace

One of the pleasures of touring a foreign country like Pakistan is the camaraderie and hospitality that is always on offer.

On Monday evening, former Pakistan captain and one of the games greats, Javed Miandad, invited Dean Jones, Robin Jackman, Clive Lloyd and myself to his home for dinner in Lahore.

After a couple of drinks we started to recall some stories of this great game we love… and believe me, Javed has many to tell!

I remember, as a twenty year old, watching a particular unsavourily incident between Javed and Dennis Lillee during the series in 1981-82 and I was keen for him to roll back the years. It did not take too much prompting.

Javed was captain of Pakistan, and the time and place was the first test in Perth.

A history of aggression between these two greats has been hogging the headlines over the previous two years and this test was built up as 'Javed versus Dennis'.

Neither had the personality to back down, and as Javed strode to the wicket with Pakistan on 27/2 the tension was unbearable and the crowd was changing 'kill, kill, Lill-ee' each time Dennis ran in to bowl.

Some ‘pleasantries’ were exchanged between the two and the atmosphere was electric.

Javed played a delivery from Lillee towards square leg and set off for a single. About two thirds down the pitch a collision between the two occurred as Dennis blocked Javed’s path at the last minute.

A heated verbal clash erupted and Javed pushed Dennis out of the way. What was to happen next sent the cricketing world into a spin.

Seeing red, Dennis then proceeded to kick Javed up the backside, who in turn spun around and threatened Lillee with his bat.

The media, as you can image, had a field day.

Dennis was fined Aus$200.

Astonishingly, Javed told us that he and Dennis have never discussed the incident although these days they are firm friends.

I wondered if Andrew Hall and Yousuf Youhana would one day engage in conversation about their clash!