Waqar dismisses the notion that star players, tired of too much international cricket, are not giving enough importance to this fixture. In fact, he doesn’t really believe in the term ‘star’ cricketers at all. “They need to be gentleman cricketers, playing good, clean cricket.”

He goes on to relate a story about his father, the gentleman. “My father was quicker than Larwood and the Maharaja of Patiala, who didn’t get along too well with Lala Amarnath, asked him to bowl a bouncer and break Lala’s head. ‘I will allot you an entire village for that,’ he said. But my father refused the offer,” he recalls.

Waqar has donated to the DDCA several pictures from Mohd Nissar’s archives, pictures of the time he played at the Kotla, of his stay at the Wellingdon Pavilion and nights spent on the mattresses there. For all that he has given though, he’d like nothing more than to take away the Nissar Trophy, wrapped in safe custody at the DDCA premises.